WILMINGTON – For more than two hours, residents in an area considered ground zero for PFAS contamination in North Carolina passionately, often angrily, chastised the Environmental Management Commission’s proposed PFAS monitoring and minimization rules.

Dozens of people who signed up to speak – 60 in all – at the public hearing Thursday in downtown Wilmington took turns at a podium unleashing what turned into a collective no-holds-barred rebuke of the proposed rules and, at times, the commissioners who pushed them forward for public comment.

Several of those who spoke in front of a crowd of about 230 people who filled a room in Wilmington’s Skyline Center shared stories about their own health issues, illnesses their loved ones have suffered, and family and friends they’ve lost to various forms of cancer.

Throughout the hearing, people snapped their fingers, signaling their agreement with those speaking at the podium. At the close of every short speech, the audience erupted in rousing applause and cheers.

The sheer number of people who signed up to speak prompted Environmental Management Commissioner Yvonne Bailey, the hearing officer that evening, to ask that residents limit their comments to two minutes.

“Those of us living here have advocated relentlessly at the local, state and federal level, and even at the U.N. for protection of our air and water,” said New Hanover County resident Priss Endo. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality “has proposed new surface water standards, but in response, the Environmental Management Commission is proposing regulations that will still allow 500 industries across the state to release PFAS chemicals.”

The hearing last week was the third and final the commission scheduled this year on its proposed monitoring and minimization rules for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA; perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, or PFOS; and a branded compound called GenX developed by DuPont spinoff Chemours. The commission has also been hosting public hearings on similar proposed rules for the monitoring and minimization of 1,4-dioxane, an industrial solvent and likely human carcinogen that has also been found in downstream drinking water sources.

PFAS are a mixture of chemicals used in a host of consumer products from nonstick cookware and food packaging to stain-resistant carpets, water-repellant attire, and makeup.

These chemicals have been found in numerous drinking water sources in North Carolina and traced back to discharges from industrial manufacturers, landfills, firefighting facilities and publicly owned treatment works that accept industry effluent.

Ongoing research into human health effects of PFAS, of which there are more than 15,000 related compounds, have found that some of the substances, including PFOA and PFOS, have been linked to health issues such as weakened immune response, liver damage, low infant birth weights, and higher risk of certain cancers.

Nearly a decade has passed since residents in the Lower Cape Fear region first learned through a local newspaper article that Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility in Bladen County had for decades knowingly discharged PFAS directly into the Cape Fear River.

Since then, public drinking water utilities that pull raw water from the river have spent millions of dollars upgrading their facilities with filtration systems and methods to keep PFAS out of their final product.

Chemours, under a 2019 consent order, has had to test thousands of privately owned drinking water wells for contamination.

“The 2019 consent order was a start,” resident Jim Nesbit said. “It’s not enough. Your mission is to protect the health of the people of this state. Use the full authority you have to take on the pollution of corporations.”

The PFAS monitoring and minimization rules the commission agreed to put out for public comment have remained under a hail of verbal fire from residents, the public utilities that provide their drinking water, and environmental organizations throughout the Cape Fear region.

As written, the rules do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for PFAS dischargers found to be in violation of those rules.

“As a 33-year water professional and former EMC member, I am testifying that the voluntary minimization plans, as proposed, are ineffective,” Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Executive Director Ken Waldroup said Thursday. “They’re essentially empty facades that do not solve the problem. These minimization plans do not remove PFAS from the Cape Fear River because all reductions are voluntary. Voluntary plans are simply ineffective. Upstream dischargers have had decades to disclose and minimize their PFAS discharges. Unfortunately, history has shown that dischargers only do so in response to effective regulation with specific mandatory limits or mitigation.”

Dr. LeShonda Wallace, who serves on the advisory board for the GenX Exposure Study, one that is measuring GenX and other PFAS exposure in area residents, said the proposed rules ignore science.

Instead, the proposed rules prioritize corporate convenience over public health, she said.

“The impacts are also economic as well as generational,” Wallace said. “PFAS contamination reduces property values, and it shifts the cost away from the polluters and on to the rate payers. Environmental protection and justice requires that those who cause the pollution pay to prevent it and that they pay to clean it up, and I urge the commission to reject these ineffective minimization rules and adopt enforceable, evidence-based standards that reduce pollution at the source.”

Lifelong New Hanover County resident Chip Jackson carried a doll baby with him to the podium.

“I came here tonight to tell this panel how ignorant I have been. I’ve been ignorant because nine years ago I trusted you people. I trusted you to do something,” he said. “I’ll give y’all a pro tip. When you see a baby float by in a stream, you look upstream to see who threw it in the stream.”

Resident Rosemary Schmitt said she simply wants to trust that the water coming out of her tap is not harmful.

“Drinking water should be safe, not something that comes with a list of side effects,” she said.

Just two weeks away from graduating with an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Tyler Raines said he was in a conundrum.

“I don’t have much else to say that hasn’t already been said about the economic, environmental, and social impacts of PFAS on the health of all human beings,” he said. “As I think about where I’m planning to root myself post-graduation, I find myself at a loss. Do I stay here in Wilmington and get poisoned by PFAS or do I go back to my home in Fuquay-Varina and get poisoned by 1,4-dioxane?”

The Environmental Management Commission could decide as early as September to approve or reject the proposed rules. If adopted, those rules would go to the Rules Review Commission for final approval by early next year.

Written comments on the proposed PFAS monitoring and minimization rules are being accepted by email to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov with the subject title “PFAS minimization” or by mail to Karen Preston, DEQ-DWR NPDES Permitting Section, 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC  27699-1617.

FAYETTEVILLE — Proposed monitoring and minimization rules for industrial dischargers of 1,4-dioxane and the public sewage plants that accept those facilities’ waste fail to protect North Carolinians’ drinking water, speakers at a public hearing said Tuesday.

All but one of the 13 people who spoke at the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission’s hearing at Fayetteville Technical Community College criticized the proposed rules, arguing those rules fall short in reducing the amounts of 1,4-dioxane discharged into people’s drinking water sources and lack enforcement.

Those comments mirror ones articulated at the commission’s April 9 hearing on the proposed rules in Hickory. A third hearing is scheduled for May 12 in Jamestown.

“The so-called monitoring and minimization rule establishes certain monitoring requirements, but the term minimization is misleading,” Fayetteville resident Madison Williams said. “The way the rule is promulgated is in a way that does not require polluters to reduce PFAS or 1,4-dioxane emissions into North Carolina drinking water supplies, and it imposes no consequences, even if those discharges increase. This in effect is a polluter written rule.”

Related: Public hearings set on proposed wastewater discharge rules

The commission is hosting separate public hearings, the first of which was held in Asheville last week, on a similar rule for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS; perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA; perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, or PFOS; and GenX, a chemical specific to a manufacturing plant that sits near Cape Fear River in Bladen County.

Under the proposed rules, publicly owned treatment works that receive industrial wastewater, and their manufacturer customers, would be required to monitor for discharges of 1,4-dioxane, an industrial solvent, into rivers, creeks and streams.

Facilities would be required to conduct baseline monitoring every three months for one year. Based on those sampling results, dischargers may be required to conduct additional monitoring.

“If determined to need ongoing sampling the industrial direct discharger will be required to develop a minimization plan,” explained Bridget Shelton with the Division of Water Resources’ planning section. “A minimization plan is a strategy to reduce or eliminate pollutants at the source before they are discharged into the environment.”

Facilities that “meet certain criteria” may request exceptions from ongoing monitoring and minimization plan requirements, she said.

The proposed rules do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for violations.

That fact has drawn sharp criticism from residents, environmental groups and public drinking water providers who have been calling on the state to establish drinking water standards for PFAS and 1,4-dioxane and regulate direct dischargers of those chemicals.

“Over 1 million North Carolina residents consume water from the Cape Fear River, water that is contaminated with 1,4-dixoane, PFAS and other forever chemicals that will continue to proliferate without sufficient regulations at the federal and state levels,” said Jonelle Kimbrough, executive director of Fayetteville-based environmental nonprofit Sustainable Sandhills. “The proposed 1,4-dioxane minimization rules seem to be an attempt at regulation but, as written, they essentially do nothing to protect the natural resources or public health of our state and we need protection.”

Rob Clark, Cape Fear River Watch’s water quality programs manager, said the organization and its more than 1,000 members collectively opposed the proposed rules.

“These rules are completely inadequate when it comes to dealing with PFAS and 1,4-dioxane pollution in the Cape Fear River Basin,” he said. “The proposed minimization rules do not set enforceable limits on how much these toxic compounds can be discharged into our waterways. Instead, they rely on polluters to monitor their pollution and submit plans describing how they might reduce that over time. Do we really think that polluters are going to cut into their profits in order to do the right thing and stop discharging these chemicals into our waterways?”

Representatives of downstream public water suppliers said the proposed rules lack a clear objective to significantly decrease 1,4-dioxane levels in state surface waters.

Fayetteville Public Works Commission’s Environmental Programs Manager Rhonda Locklear pointed out that statewide monitoring has identified 1,4-dioxane primarily in the Cape Fear River Basin.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, “has sampled surface waters in 15 of North Carolina’s 17 river basins, confirming that most industrial 1,4-dioxane sources are in the Cape Fear River Basin, where 35% of these samples since 2017 were above non-detect thresholds, almost 10 times the rate in the Neuse River Basin, and nearly 200 times that of the Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin,” she said. “The problem areas are well-defined, documented, and PWC expects DEQ to set meaningful regulations and reductions in the Cape Fear River Basin.”

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Deputy Executive Director Kevin Morris said that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which classifies 1,4-dioxane as a likely human carcinogen, warns that at even at concentrations of 0.35 parts per billion, long-term exposure to the chemical increases cancer risks to humans and may cause significant kidney and liver impacts.

“Downstream water systems continue to experience periodic spikes in 1,4-dioxane despite having no role in producing or discharging this chemical, which demonstrates the limitations of our current regulatory framework,” Morris said.

He highlighted how effluent from Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant has periodically tested for elevated levels of 1,4-dioxane, concentrations of which far exceeded levels associated with long-term health risks.

“These discharges flow into waterways like the Haw and Cape Fear rivers,” Morris said. “They’re relied upon by downstream drinking water systems, and they require additional monitoring, treatment, adjustments and customer communication. The downstream public ultimately bears the risk from and the cost of managing contamination that they had no part in creating. Voluntary reduction measures are insufficient to ensure consistent outcomes or to protect downstream communities. Utilities can manage only what arrives at their intake.”

As of Wednesday, DEQ had received more than 2,000 public comments and counting on the commission’s proposed rules for 1,4-dixoane and PFAS, according to Josh Kastrinksy, DEQ’s deputy communications director.

“The comments we’ve received in writing have by and large reflected the comments we’ve received in person,” he said.

Andrew Mlot, chair of the North Carolina Pretreatment Consortium Inc., a nonprofit that represents more than 180 pretreatment professionals in 64 state-approved pretreatment programs across North Carolina, was the only person Tuesday to speak in support of the proposed rules.

But that organization has “several specific concerns” with the rules as they are currently written, he said.

“The costs to treat 1,4-dioxane at the POTW (publicly owned treatment works) level is staggering. Capital costs alone range from $10 million to $1.3 billion, making source control the only practical path forward,” he said.

The proposed rules would require public treatment works in Greensboro, Burlington, Asheboro, High Point and Reidsville, which have been conducting monitoring and minimization activities going back to 2015, to start over, Mlot said.

“We ask for an explicit offramp for POTWs that have already completed successful programs. Replace any detection with a workable screening threshold. As currently written, any detection of 1,4-dioxane triggers ongoing monitoring requirements and a full minimization plan. NCPC members do not believe this is workable. We support an alternative screening threshold based on meaningful concentrations or loading levels,” he said.

DEQ is accepting written comments through June 15. Comments may be submitted by email to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov with the subject heading “1,4-dioxane minimization, or by mail to Bridget Shelton, DEQ-DWR Planning Section, 1611 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1611.

Microplastics and pharmaceuticals have made the Environmental Protection Agency’s newly published draft list of substances in public drinking water that warrant scientific scrutiny.

This marks a first for the EPA, which, along with U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced last week that microplastics and pharmaceuticals are two of four contaminant groups and dozens of chemicals included on the draft Sixth Contaminant Candidate List.

The April 2 announcement kick-started a 60-day public comment period.

The Trump administration hailed the additions to the list, also referred to as CCL 6, as “a landmark set of actions to safeguard the nation’s drinking water.”

“For too long, Americans have vocalized concerns about plastics and pharmaceuticals in their drinking water. That ends today,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stated in a release. “By placing microplastics and pharmaceuticals on the Contaminant Candidate List for the first time ever, EPA is sending a clear message: we will follow the science, we will pursue answers, and we will hold ourselves to the highest standards to protect the health of every American family.”

The announcement comes as the Trump administration is actively pursuing rolling back drinking water standards for several per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, established under the previous administration.

PFAS, along with disinfection byproducts, once again made it onto a CCL, which singles out contaminants that are known or anticipated to be in public drinking water systems, but are not regulated under the Safe Water Drinking Act and may be considered for future regulatory action.

Also making it back on the list is 1,4-dioxane, an industrial solvent that, along with PFAS, is known to be in the drinking water sources for tens of thousands of North Carolinians, perhaps most notably in the Cape Fear Region.

Last year, the EPA announced that it would retain current National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for PFOA and PFOS but rescind regulations and reconsider regulatory determinations for other PFAS, including GenX.

GenX is specific to Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility that is situated near the banks of the Cape Fear River and more than 70 miles upstream of Wilmington. The Cape Fear River is the raw drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians.

The federal agency also said it was extending deadlines for public water treatment plants to come into compliance with the federally established limits for those PFAS.

Since the late 1990s, the EPA has been required by law to publish every five years a list of contaminants that are either unregulated or not proposed for regulation.

CCLs are considered the initial step in a process to better understand, through scientific research, potential human health risks of contaminants in drinking water.

And, while clean drinking water advocates say this is a good first step, they urge the public to call for regulations to limit the levels of or altogether halt the discharge of contaminants into public drinking water sources.

“I think it’s important to recognize what chemicals are in our drinking water and to study the risks associated with that,” Hannah Nelson, a staff attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Chapel Hill office said. “But simply adding chemicals to this list isn’t going to protect our communities. They’re on the list because we know they’re in drinking water, so now we need to take the next step to control the source of that pollution at the source and get it out of our drinking water. I North Carolina, because we know these pollutants are already there, I think we really should be focusing on how do we keep them out in the first place, because that’s how we truly protect our communities.”

Residents in the Cape Fear region, the local governments that represent them, the public water utilities that serve them, and environmental organizations are embroiled in an ongoing fight pushing for state regulations to put the onus on dischargers of PFAS and 1,4-dioxane to reduce the amounts of chemicals they release into drinking water sources.

On Tuesday, the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission will host its first in a series of public hearings on proposed PFAS and 1,4-dioxane monitoring and minimization rules.

Three hearings will focus on proposed rules for discharges of PFOS, PFOA and GenX into North Carolina’s surface waters and three on proposed rules for monitoring and minimizing 1,4-dioxane in wastewater discharges from certain facilities into surface waters.

The proposed rules packages do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for discharge violations, which has become a sticking point for those who argue that the rules would do little in actually minimizing the amount of those contaminants in drinking water sources.

“We know our environmental rulemaking body is currently trying to pass rules on PFAS and 1,4-dioxane that don’t control chemicals at the source,” Nelson said. “Having drinking water standards would be a helpful too, but our real focus should be, how can we keep these out in the first place and how can we encourage our state and our federal leaders to protect the people from the pollution before it even reaches the point of coming out of our sink and pouring into our cups.”

Beyond Plastics, a Bennington College, Vermont-based organization dedicated to ending single-use plastic pollution, called for similar regulation for microplastics.

“The U.S. Environmental Agency has taken an important first step to regulate microplastics in drinking water,” Beyond Plastics President and former EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck stated in a release. “I applaud this decision by the EPA and urge the agency to move rapidly to not only regulate microplastics in drinking water but to also prevent microplastics from entering our water supplies.”

Cape Fear River Watch’s Water Quality Programs Manager Rob Clark agreed, saying that microplastics are ubiquitous – they’re in our environment and in our bodies.

“It’s a situation where it seems like we already have a lot of information on this,” he said. “What we need is ubiquitous monitoring across the country and we need regulation. The quicker that we get to setting a maximum contaminant level for microplastics, the quicker it’s not in our drinking water.”

In its April 2 release, the EPA noted that while human health benchmarks for pharmaceuticals are not regulations and not enforceable, “they are a vital resource, empowering local decision-makers to evaluate risks and protect their communities when pharmaceutical contamination is detected at concerning levels.”

The public comment period on draft CCL 6 will close June 5.

The EPA is expected to sign a final list by Nov. 17.

“I think public comment periods on action like this are really important because it’s a good time for folks to express concerns about the chemicals that are known to be present in their drinking water,” Nelson said. “Adding chemicals to the list is truly just an acknowledgement that they’re in the water. I don’t think we should read this list as a commitment to going above and beyond and advocating for folks. What we need to see is strong action to keep those chemicals out, whether it be from the federal administration or our state agencies.”

It’s been nearly a month since a video first aired of Wilmington’s mayor invoking residents to voice their opposition to one town’s plans to pull millions of gallons of water daily from the Cape Fear River.

“Today this vital resource is under threat from growing water-hungry communities upstream,” Mayor Bill Saffo says in the clip as he stands along the city’s downtown Riverwalk.

Fuquay-Varina, a town about 30 miles south of Raleigh, wants to move more than 6 million gallons of water each day from the Cape Fear River to the Neuse River, he explains in the video made in collaboration with the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority.

“That’s 6 million gallons gone, each day, forever. It is important that you make your voice heard now for your family and for future generations. Add your voice to those of your neighbors and friends who already are telling the state to say no to Fuquay-Varina’s permanent taking of our water,” Saffo concludes.

Only a couple of more weeks are left until the public comment period on Fuquay-Varina’s request for an interbasin transfer, or IBT, certificate closes.

Maya Holcomb, a Division of Water Resources representative, told members of the state Environmental Management Commission’s Water Allocation Committee last week that she anticipated receiving comments all the way through to the April 1 deadline.

In her presentation to the committee Thursday, Holcomb provided an update on the numbers of correspondence she’d received in the days since she initially crafted her report, when the email count was at 283.

Related: Opponents say river water transfer puts Cape Fear in peril

“But I just keep getting so many emails, which — we’re hearing from the public, that’s great — but I have received an additional 42 emails since this PowerPoint was created last week,” Holcomb said.

Holcomb said she had also received 41 resolutions from cities, towns, counties, homebuilders, substations and public utilities.

She did not say how many of those resolutions oppose the IBT, but instead highlighted what she described as the “newest” issues of concern: loss of water for agricultural purposes, nutrient concentration in the Neuse River Basin, such as those that cause algal blooms, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, hypoxia, drought vulnerability and chemical export of industrial pollutants from the Cape Fear River.

Those concerns mirror some of arguments made by dozens of people who spoke out against the transfer during a series of state-hosted public hearings in December.

Fuquay-Varina projects that the water supply, from which it currently buys from Raleigh and Harnett and Johnston counties, will fall short of demand by 2030.

Under the proposed preferred alternative identified in a draft environmental impact statement for the transfer, Fuquay-Varina would source its entire water supply from a water treatment plant in Sanford, which is in the Cape Fear River Basin.

Once water pulled from the Cape Fear River is used by residents and businesses in that town, the treated wastewater would then be discharged into the Neuse River Basin.

This would permanently subtract 6.17 million gallons each day from the river flow that currently serves about 900,000 residents of counties, cities, towns and communities from Fayetteville to Wilmington.

“Put in perspective, 6.17 (million gallons per day) of raw water from the river is enough to provide treated drinking water to more than 27,000 homes,” according to Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s website.

In the weeks and months leading up to CFPUA’s campaign against Fuquay-Varina’s plan, several local governments and utilities adopted resolutions and sent letters of opposition to the state.

New Hanover County, Wilmington and Brunswick County and more than a dozen Brunswick County municipalities have officially gone on record opposing Fuquay-Varina’s request.

Holcomb explained last week that, after April 1, state environmental officials will respond to comments on the draft environmental impact statement and then formulate a hearing officers’ report, which will be finalized sometime between July and September.

After that, the Environmental Management Commission will determine whether the EIS is technically adequate. Following that determination, the Department of Environmental Quality will issue its record of decision.

Another round of public hearings will be held before the EMC makes its final determination.

If approved, the transfer would occur after 2031, according to the draft impact statement.

Comments may be submitted to Maya Holcomb, Division of Water Resources, 512 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh, NC, 27604, or by email to maya.holcomb@deq.nc.gov.

The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission has scheduled a series of public hearings in select cities beginning next month on proposed PFAS and 1,4-dioxane monitoring and minimization rules.

In all, six hearings have been set, three of which will focus on proposed rules for discharges of three per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances through wastewater into North Carolina’s surface waters and three on proposed rules for monitoring and minimizing 1,4-dioxane in wastewater discharges from certain facilities into surface waters.

A public comment period for each set of proposed rules will kick off on March 16 and continue until June 15.

Under the proposed PFAS rules, all major and minor industrial direct dischargers, and significant industrial users that discharge to publicly owned treatment works, would be required to monitor and implement “minimization activities required to eliminate or significantly reduce” discharges of PFOS, PFOA, and GenX within a period of anywhere between three and five years.

Discharge limits for those specific PFAS have yet to be determined.

PFAS exposure has been linked to a number of adverse health impacts to people, including thyroid disease, increased cholesterol, liver damage, and different types of cancers.

More than 3 million North Carolinians are estimated to drink tap water containing PFAS levels above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency health-based standard scheduled to go into effect in the coming years, according to the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality.

Public hearings on the proposed rules for the three PFAS are scheduled as follows:

• April 7 at 6 p.m. in Ferguson Auditorium, AB-Tech Community College, 19 Tech Drive, Asheville.
• April 20 at 6 p.m. in the Archdale Building, ground floor hearing room, 512 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh. Public parking will be available after 5 p.m. at parking deck 64 across North Salisbury Street from the Archdale Building.
• April 23 at 6 p.m. in Wilmington City Hall at Skyline Center, first floor conference center, 929 North Front St., Wilmington. Parking is available in the south lot using the Brunswick Street entrance. Attendees requiring American with Disabilities Act access should park in the visitor lot.

Written comments are being accepted by email to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov with the subject title “PFAS minimization” or by mail to Karen Preston, DEQ-DWR NPDES Permitting Section, 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1617.

Comments will be accepted on the proposed rule adoptions and associated regulatory impact analysis. The commission is also accepting comments on specific questions including:

• Whether it would be scientifically defensible and advisable to establish a screening threshold above the lowest reporting concentration for PFOS, PFOA and GenX that could serve as a trigger for ongoing monitoring and minimization requirements.
• Whether the applicability of the PFAS monitoring and minimization rule should be limited to industrial dischargers associated with a standard industry classification (SIC) or North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes known to be linked to PFAS use or discharge.

Hearings on proposed rules for monitoring and minimizing 1,4-dioxane, a federally deemed likely human carcinogen, in wastewater discharges into surface waters from certain facilities have been scheduled for the following dates:

• April 9 at 6 p.m. in the Catawba County St. Stephens Branch Library, 3225 Springs Road, Hickory.
• April 14 at 6 p.m. at Fayetteville Technology Community College, Tony Rand Student Center multipurpose room, 2220 Hull Road, Fayetteville.
• May 12 at 6 p.m. in the Percy H. Sears Applied Technologies Building Auditorium, Guilford Technical Community College, 1201 Bonner Drive, Jamestown.

Written comments on the proposed rules for 1,4-dixoane may be submitted via email to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov with the subject heading “1,4-dioxane minimization,” or by mail to Bridget Shelton, DEQ-DWR Planning Section, 1611 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C., 27699-1611.

The EMC will also be accepting specific comments on the proposed 1,4-dixoane minimization rules to include:

• Whether a screening threshold above the lowest reported concentration (currently 1 microgram per liter) for 1,4-dioxane would be appropriate as a trigger for ongoing monitoring and minimization planning.
• whether the applicability of the 1,4-dioxane monitoring and minimization rules should be expanded beyond the currently proposed scope of dischargers with certain standard industry classification or North American Industry Classification System codes to include all industrial dischargers.

Sign-in and speaker registration will begin at 5 p.m. at each of the hearings.

Based on attendance, speaking time may be limited to allow everyone an opportunity to be heard. The commission will accept written comments and copies of prepared remarks at each hearing.

Cape Fear River Watch’s seminar series on Saturday will feature the principal investigator of the GenX exposure study.

Dr. Jane Hoppin, a professor at North Carolina State University, will provide a summary of the study’s findings to-date and discuss future plans for the project.

The study began in 2017 after residents in Wilmington were informed through a newspaper report that an upstream chemical manufacturing plant had, for decades, been discharging per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, including GenX, into their drinking water source, the Cape Fear River.

The study, which measures the blood levels of PFAS in Wilmington residents, has evolved into a long-term health project with more than 1,000 participants throughout the Cape Fear River Basin.

Cape Fear River Watch hosts its seminar series the first Saturday of each month.

The free event is being held at Cape Fear River Watch’s headquarters at 617 Surry St., Wilmington.

Those interested in attending are encouraged to arrive early to secure a seat. Complimentary pancakes and coffee will be served.

Gov. Josh Stein and North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Reid Wilson made a visit Thursday to Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s Sweeney Water Treatment Plant in Wilmington to formally announce a $17.8 million grant from the state to support the replacement and capacity upgrade of the utility’s Southside Water Reclamation Facility.

The funds will be used to extend waterlines to connect more than 300 homes with contaminated wells to the utility’s supply of drinking water.

The governor’s office first announced Feb. 19 the nearly $18 million grant, which is coming out of more than $472 million for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure projects.

“The $472 million statewide investment through NCDEQ will help cities, towns and counties strengthen infrastructure to better withstand future storms, improve existing drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, reduce contamination by forever chemicals, and identify and replace lead pipes,” according to the press release.

A list of all the projects selected for funding is on the NCDEQ website.

“When families turn on the tap, they deserve to know that their water is clean and safe,” Stein said in an announcement. “This $17 million investment in Wilmington will protect more than 300 families from forever chemicals by connecting their homes to the public water supply. We’ve made historic commitments to upgrade water infrastructure across North Carolina because keeping North Carolinians healthy starts with reliable, resilient water systems.”

The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority will receive the funds through the Department of Environmental Quality’s Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities program, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The $17.8 million funding to the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority brings DEQ’s total support for the Southside Replacement Project to $192.8 million.

“People who live in the Cape Fear River Basin are rightly concerned about high levels of forever chemicals like GenX and PFAS in their drinking water,” Wilson said. “The Department of Environmental Quality remains committed to doing everything we can to reduce exposure to these harmful chemicals so that families can trust that the water coming out of their tap is healthy and safe.”

In the parts of New Hanover County served by these waterline extension projects, more than 75% of sampled wells exceeded health-based drinking water standards for certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. PFAS is a group of thousands of human-made, persistent chemicals that have been used for decades to make heat, water, and stain-resistant products.

“Since CFPUA brought new filters online at our Sweeney Plant in 2022, we have been able to effectively remove GenX and other PFAS from our public drinking water,” utility Board Chairman Wesley P. Corder said. “We are very grateful for this support from Governor Stein’s Office and the Department of Environmental Quality, which will enable us to connect more families in our community to CFPUA’s clean, clearly better water.”

Since taking office, Stein has advanced more than $1.4 billion in water infrastructure projects to strengthen drinking water and wastewater systems and address PFAS and other contaminants.

Last week, the Governor traveled to Winston-Salem to join the 40th annual Emerging Issues Forum, where he discussed the importance of sustained investment in North Carolina’s water infrastructure.

Related: Population growth to impact water infrastructure: Forum

The North Carolina Division of Coastal Management has objected to the proposed Wilmington Harbor project, concluding that a federal study of the plan is too scant on details and that, as presented, deepening and widening the channel would have “significant adverse impacts to coastal resources.”

The Army Corps of Engineers’ review lacks an evaluation of PFAS in the sediment in the lower Cape Fear River, fails to adequately assess cumulative flooding impacts or thoroughly detail areas where dredged material would be placed, and does not sufficiently account for potential effects on fisheries habitat, freshwater wetlands, shorelines, or state, historic and other properties along the river, the division concluded.

The draft environmental impact statement, or DEIS, the Corps released last September also falls short in analyzing the project’s economic benefits and evaluating “potential economic losses associated with environmental degradation,” Division of Coastal Management Director Tancred Miller wrote to the Corps’ Wilmington District in a 15-page letter dated Feb. 24.

A Corps spokesman, in a statement Wednesday, called the state’s objection “disappointing” and highlighted what the Corps describes as offering “numerous opportunities” to engage with the public and work with state and federal agencies.

The Corps “felt we had been working hand in hand with all our State and Federal partners and resource agencies since we began coordination regarding this project nearly 3.5 years ago,” Jed Cayton, a public affairs specialist with Wilmington District, said in an email. “Given all the integration and engagement throughout this process, the objection provided at this late stage in the process is disconcerting.”

The Corps and North Carolina State Ports Authority are reviewing the division’s letter “to determine how we will proceed,” Cayton said. “Since we are very early in this review, we cannot yet give a specific date for completion.”

The Corps may pause the project and work with the state to try and resolve the state’s concerns or initiate a formal dispute resolution process.

The division’s objection comes a little more than a month after the division granted the Corps’ request to pause its review of whether the proposed project was consistent with state coastal management program laws, regulations and policies.

Miller wrote that, during that pause, the division “detailed its concerns along with possible paths forward to address the information deficiencies.”

On Feb. 16, the Corps asked the division in an email to resume its review of the project, one that has been highly scrutinized for its potential effects to the environment, shorelines and historic and culturally significant areas along the shores of the lower Cape Fear River.

“Our objection was based on a combination of lack of sufficient information to determine the impacts from PFAS and flooding and anticipated significant adverse impacts to fisheries resources, wildlife habitat and cultural and historic resources,” Miller told the Coastal Resources Commission during its meeting Wednesday in Atlantic Beach.

In his letter, Miller wrote that the lack of information regarding per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances was “of particular concern.”

“The DEIS does not evaluate the potential for contaminant resuspension during dredging and the resulting fate and transport of these chemicals into nearby water bodies and land areas,” the letter states. “This is of particular concern since extensive scientific research has documented the presence and persistence of PFAS over the past decade within the [Cape Fear River Basin], including a growing body of research indicating significant negative ecological implications of PFAS in fish, birds, and reptiles.”

The proposal calls for extending the entrance of the federal navigation channel farther offshore, deepening the channel by 5 feet and widening portions of it from the mouth of the Cape Fear River more than 25 miles to the Wilmington port.

The ports authority says the project is needed to accommodate larger ships, which will attract more import and export business to the port, ease shipping congestion on the East Coast and keep the state’s ports competitive.

But opponents of the proposed project argue it will accelerate erosion and exacerbate flooding, destroy habitat, disperse PFAS in the riverbed’s sediment into marshes and onto public beaches, is not economically justified, and threatens historic and cultural resources along the river.

One such historic site is Orton, a privately owned property that spans some 14,000 acres off the lower Cape Fear River’s western bank in Brunswick County and that includes a former plantation.

Orton owner Louis Bacon has spent millions restoring an expansive rice field system and earthen dike that enslaved Africans built more than two centuries ago to protect the rice fields from the river.

In a statement to Coastal Review on Wednesday, Bacon said the Division of Coastal Management’s objection to the proposed harbor project, “is proof that facts and persistence matter.”

“My concern has always been simple: this project, as proposed, puts undue and unacceptable risk on important historical and ecological sites,” Bacon stated. “The corps has not provided the analysis or safeguards the law requires. At Orton, dredging so close to a 250-year-old earthen dike creates a very real risk of catastrophic failure according to two separate expert firms – collapsing and flooding 350 acres of freshwater rice fields and exceptional wetlands with Atlantic saltwater, thereby eradicating the legacy of enslaved African Americans who built these systems over centuries, a monument to their efforts that I have spent years restoring.

“My objection is rooted in the fact that the project cannot be considered ‘consistent’ with North Carolina’s coastal protections if it causes this much damage,” he continued. “Large infrastructure decisions must be grounded in rigorous scientific evaluations, transparent disclosure, and enforceable protections, because these valuable resources cannot be rebuilt once lost.”

Several towns in Brunswick and New Hanover counties have adopted resolutions urging state and federal agencies to protect a series of islands within the lower Cape Fear River that support 30% of the state’s coastal shorebird population. Those towns have also asked for the creation of a comprehensive, long-term, and fully funded environmental and adaptive management plan to cover costs related to monitoring and mitigation to prevent and repair environmental harm.

Last month, the Wilmington City Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling for state and federal decision makers to further review the proposed project.

In his letter, Miller noted that an overwhelming majority of the written comments the division received last year regarding the proposed project opposed it. And everyone who spoke at a public hearing the division hosted in downtown Wilmington last November opposed the project.

Kerri Allen, coastal management program director of the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, was one of the 72 people who expressed their concerns about the proposed project at that meeting.

“I’m encouraged to see DCM thoughtfully consider the many strong public comments submitted on this project,” Allen said in an email on Wednesday. “The level of engagement from coastal residents, local leaders, and partners shows how much people care, and it matters when that input is reflected in decisions. Our public trust waters belong to everyone, and transparent review like this helps lead to better, more resilient outcomes for our coast.”

Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney Ramona McGee echoed similar sentiments in a release Wednesday.

“This decision is welcome news for the people of Wilmington and beyond who cherish the lower Cape Fear River and its surrounding natural areas,” McGee stated. “This $1.3 billion project would put at risk the communities and wildlife that call this region home by exacerbating flooding, destroying habitat, and damaging wetlands. The Lower Cape Fear is already threatened by sea-level rise and industrial pollution – we shouldn’t be further damaging this special place with an unnecessary and costly project.”

A North Carolina court has ruled that the state’s lead environmental agency has the authority to set 1,4-dioxane discharge limits for public wastewater utilities.

The ruling reverses a 2024 administrative law judge’s determination that the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality did not follow the proper process when it established discharge limits for a handful of municipal wastewater treatment plants in the piedmont.

DEQ followed state Environmental Management Commission and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “protocols in creating the 1,4-dioxane limits and created the criteria for the purpose of protecting the health and wellbeing of North Carolinians,” Wake County Superior Court Judge A. Graham Shirley wrote in his Feb. 5 decision. “Compliance with regulations and a desire to maintain or improve public health cannot be said to be a ‘patently in bad faith’ decision.”

Shirley wrote that the agency “did not err” in considering 1,4-dioxane, a substance used primarily as a solvent in chemical manufacturing, as a carcinogen.

“Because 1,4-dioxane is a pollutant likely to cause cancer in humans, permit limits are necessary to protect North Carolinians’ drinking water and their health,” DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson stated in a release the agency published Thursday. “The court vindicates DEQ’s decision to impose limits to protect downstream communities from this harmful carcinogen.”

Discharges of the chemical substance into North Carolinians’ drinking water sources has gained attention in recent years, with downstream public water suppliers and communities calling for tighter regulations and that pollution be controlled at the source.

DEQ’s Division of Water Resources attempted to do that when, in August 2023, it issued Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit that capped its releases of 1,4-dixoane.

Asheboro sued, challenging the state’s authority to include a water quality standard for 1,4-dioxane in the permit and arguing the new limits created an excessive financial burden.

The cities of Greensboro and Reidsville joined the lawsuit. Both had been ordered to include limits in their draft NPDES permits after they received notices of violation for 1,4-dioxane discharges in November 2019.

Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant discharges into Cape Fear River basin, where some 900,000 North Carolinians receive their drinking water downstream of the plant.

Brunswick County, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority and Fayetteville Public Works Commission intervened in the case, asserting that upstream 1,4-dioxane dischargers placed an undue financial burden on them to sample drinking water sources for the chemical and try and reduce the level of consumption of it to their customers.

In a September 2024 ruling, then-Chief Administrative Law Judge Dr. Donald van der Vaart sided with the upstream municipalities and revoked the permit limits set by DEQ.

“The Superior Court was right to uphold DEQ’s ability to limit chemicals in our water, and my office will continue working with DEQ to make sure people have clean drinking water,” North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson stated in a release.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Executive Director Kenneth Waldroup said in a statement to Coastal Review Thursday afternoon that the utility is pleased with Shirley’s decision.

“CFPUA’s raw water intake is the last on the Cape Fear River. We rely on State regulators to set and enforce reasonable discharge standards upstream of our intake to protect our region’s raw water supply,” he explained. “While CFPUA’s Sweeney Water Treatment Plant is able to treat drinking water for 1,4-dioxane, that treatment process carries an expense and our ability to treat this pollution has its limits. Reducing the amounts of 1,4-dioxane and other emerging contaminants being released upstream also reduces the financial burden on downstream customers and communities.”

Last October, Waldroup joined representatives of other public water utilities and residents in asking the EPA to uphold its earlier objection to the proposed NPDES permit excluding Asheboro’s discharge limit for 1,4-dioxane.

As of this report, the EPA had not made its final determination.

Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear, said in an email that the Superior Court ruling, “is a win for public health and every downstream community threatened by Asheboro’s irresponsible leadership.”

“It’s a shame cities like Asheboro prefer squandering tax dollars defending industrial polluters rather than protecting the public’s drinking water supplies,” she said. “It’s also a devastating reminder that until North Carolina creates strong source control measures for toxic chemicals, we will always be one discharge away from the next preventable crisis.”

Earlier this year, the state Environmental Management Commission voted to push proposed monitoring and minimization rules for 1,4-dioxane and three per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, to the public this month.

Critics of the proposed rules argue they lack any real enforceability because they do not include water quality standards, specify what best management practices dischargers must follow, or how facilities must minimize their discharges.

The public comment period had yet to be announced as of this report.

In June of last year, the Southern Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch and Haw River Assembly against Asheboro and the city’s industrial customer StarPet Inc., to stop their discharges of 1,4-dioxane into the Cape Fear River basin.

“Asheboro, Greensboro, and Reidsville have spent years arguing for downstream communities to shoulder the health and monetary costs of the cities’ pollution,” Jean Zhuang, a senior attorney with the center’s Chapel Hill office, stated in a release. “The Wake County Superior Court saw through the cities’ arguments and restored a key tool that can be used to protect families, communities, and drinking water utilities downstream.”

According to that release, the cities have filed a motion to suspend the court’s decision and an appeal is pending.

Reprinted from N.C. Health News

North Carolina’s struggle with PFAS contamination underscores the unintended consequences that can follow widespread chemical use — even as Congress is considering overhauling the nation’s foremost chemical safety law.

That law, the Toxic Substances Control Act, governs how industrial chemicals are reviewed and regulated in the United States. Passed in 1976 and overhauled by a Republican Congress in 2016, the chemical safety law sets standards for the data companies must provide, the timeline federal regulators have to review new chemicals and whether substances can enter commerce.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has defended proposed changes to TSCA as a way to make chemical reviews more predictable and efficient while maintaining safety standards. In announcing the proposal, Zeldin said the agency aims to provide “a clear, predictable, commonsense approach that’s grounded in the law and the science.” He added that reforms are intended to protect health and the environment while allowing American manufacturing to thrive.

Critics say industry interests are driving the push for changes.

“It’s clear that the chemical industry is engaged in a full court press to try to make some amendments to TSCA,” said Stan Meiburg, former acting deputy administrator of the EPA and retired head of The Sabin Center for Environment and Sustainability at Wake Forest University, in an interview with NC Health News.

In North Carolina, contamination from PFAS and other industrial chemicals evaluated under TSCA brought enforcement of the act into sharp public focus.

Often called “forever chemicals,” PFAS persist in the environment and have been linked to such human health issues as elevated cholesterol, immune suppression, developmental effects and certain cancers. Once contamination is discovered, cleanup can take years and cost utilities — and taxpayers — millions.

Much of the current debate in Washington centers on required environmental review of the law’s fee authority, mandated under the 2016 amendments. The law allows EPA to collect fees from chemical manufacturers to help fund safety reviews, and it requires the agency to periodically reassess whether those fees are sufficient. That authority will expire at the end of fiscal year 2026 unless Congress renews it, which raises broader questions about how federal chemical oversight will be funded. 

The disagreement has played out publicly in recent congressional hearings, where lawmakers debated whether the chemical evaluation process should be simplified to accelerate the review process.

Speed vs. safety

That tension surfaced during two January hearings, a Jan. 8 session before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology and a Jan. 22 hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment, where lawmakers debated whether to move chemical reviews along more quickly or strengthen oversight under TSCA.

Supporters of overhauling the law said the process needs greater efficiency and clearer timelines, while critics argue that speeding reviews without strengthening scientific capacity could weaken protections.

“EPA is required to complete new chemical reviews within 90 days,” Charlotte Bertrand, a senior director at the American Chemistry Council, said during the Jan. 8 House hearing. “Yet more than 90 percent of active reviews exceed that statutory deadline. Over 60 percent remain pending for more than a year — and some for several years.”

Without changes, she added, delays in chemical approvals could put American manufacturers at a global disadvantage, particularly when compared with China.

Meiburg, who testified at the Jan. 8 hearing, warned against prioritizing speed over scientific rigor.

“Quick decisions do not serve the public if they are not based on the best science, are inconsistent with the law, are unduly influenced by interested parties or not transparent,” Meiburg told lawmakers.

His warning comes as the agency’s scientific capacity has faced reductions. Last year, the Trump administration announced plans to reduce the organization’s funding by 65 percent, a proposal that has resulted in substantial cuts to the Office of Research and Development — the agency’s primary science arm and the division responsible for conducting chemical risk evaluations under TSCA.

At the Jan. 22 House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing, Tracey Woodruff, professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and director of its Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, argued that the proposed reforms would weaken safeguards built into the 2016 amendments.

“The proposed changes would remove public health guardrails and undermine EPA’s ability to protect people from harmful chemicals,” Woodruff said.

Environmental advocates echoed those concerns, arguing that shortening timelines or narrowing data requirements could increase the risk of overlooking potential health and environmental harms — especially if EPA lacks sufficient scientific staffing and resources.

A looming deadline

Beyond the mechanics of fee renewal, former EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the broader issue is whether the agency has the resources to carry out the law as written. While the statute itself remains strong, Congress has not provided funding to match the expanded responsibilities created under the 2016 overhaul, he said.

“When you reduce government the way it has been done over the last year or so, you are actually reducing the ability for TSCA to work the way Congress intended it,” Regan told NC Health News during an interview.

Under TSCA, companies submitting new chemicals pay review fees, while manufacturers of existing chemicals selected for formal risk evaluations share the cost of those more extensive, multi-year assessments. Those fees, which can range from tens of thousands to millions of dollars depending on the type of review, help fund EPA’s scientific staff and risk evaluation work.

That authority is set to expire at the end of fiscal year 2026 unless Congress renews it, giving lawmakers leverage not only to adjust fee levels but also to revisit broader elements of the law.

For North Carolina communities, the stakes are not abstract. PFAS contamination in the Cape Fear River has required costly treatment upgrades and years of regulatory and legal action. Supporters of strong oversight argue that thorough, well-resourced reviews are far less expensive than responding after widespread contamination occurs.

Meiburg said the lesson from decades of chemical regulation is straightforward.

“Preventing pollution is always cheaper than repairing damage later,” he said.

This article first appeared on North Carolina Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Brunswick County commissioners have approved the purchase of about 380 acres to be used as a future raw water reservoir near its Northwest Water Treatment Plant.

Following a closed session Wednesday morning, commissioners unanimously agreed to the more than $8.7 million price tag, which includes $241,778 for the timber on the property so that it will remain wooded.

The land in the Leland area is the former site of a quarry, which, coupled with its location to the water plant, “makes it an ideal location for a water reservoir,” according to the county.

“This is a forward-thinking, long-term investment to bolster and secure our county’s access to our most important resource on earth,” Commissioner Chairman Mike Forte said in a release. “Having a water reservoir means that in the event of an unforeseen emergency, drought, or temporary water shortage, we will have back-up water supply for all our residents and businesses.”

The tract includes about a 50- to 60-acre lake of the old quarry site and is largely forested.

The county plans to keep the wooded area intact as it transitions to a reservoir site.

“Because of the growth and development in this particular area of the county, this property may have one day been developed into a major planned unit development,” County Manager Steve Stone said in the release. “Instead, this location will be used to support important public health and quality of life needs while preserving its natural identity.”

Infrastructure including pumps and pipes will need to be installed before the reservoir is placed into service.

The future raw water reservoir will allow the county to continue supplying water to the Northwest Treatment Plant if the Kings Bluff raw water transmission system or pump station goes out of service, maintain the county’s water supply in the event of a contaminant spill in the Cape Fear River, supplement the county’s water supply in drought conditions, and stabilize the raw water supply from the Kings Bluff transmission system, which will help increase the Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer system capacity from peak to average daily capacity of 96 million gallons per day.

This project is the latest in the county’s ongoing efforts to improve and expand water service.

Work continues to double capacity at the Northwest Water Treatment Plant from 24 million gallons per day to 48 MGD. And, a new low-pressure reverse osmosis system is being installed to treat and remove regulated and unregulated materials such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, from raw drinking water supplies.

That project is expected to be completed by September.

A preliminary study conducted by the North Carolina Division of Water Resources found PFAS in soil, wastewater and biosolid samples collected at sites across the state.

The study assessing concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in biosolids concludes that a majority of those substances entering wastewater treatment plants are discharged into waterways, “as compared with the amount entering the environment through land application biosolids,” according to a Department of Environmental Quality release.

Biosolids are the nutrient-rich organic material that remains after wastewater has been treated. The material is typically used as a fertilizer.

The study is the first that the division has conducted assessing PFAS concentrations in biosolids across the state.

Division staff began gathering samples in 2023 to evaluate PFAS concentrations in wastewater and biosolids from 37 municipal, industrial and domestic wastewater treatment facilities. Soil samples were also collected from 19 fields regulated under non-discharge permits.

Wastewater treatment facilities can receive PFAS, which are a group of man-made chemicals used to make a host of commercial, industrial and consumer products, from residential, commercial and industrial sources.

“The study represents a first step for DEQ to begin to understand PFAS concentrations in wastewater and biosolids in our state,” Julie Grzyb, the division’s deputy director, stated in a release. “The study was based on a small sample size and was limited in scope, but it underscores the importance of characterizing and controlling PFAS contamination at the source.”

The study did not assess how these chemicals in biosolids move in the environment.

DEQ estimates that 3.5 million North Carolinians drink tap water that contains PFAS levels above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency health-based standard scheduled that was to initially go into effect in 2029.

The Trump administration’s EPA announced last year that it would extend the deadline for public water treatment plants to come into compliance with the federally established limits for two legacy PFAS – PFOA and PFOS to 2031. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin also announced plans to rescind regulations and reconsider regulatory determination for other PFAS, including GenX.

North Carolina does not have state regulatory requirements for PFAS in biosolids.

“The study will inform future study design and identify opportunities for further data collection and analysis,” the release states.

Proposed rules that would require hundreds of industrial manufacturers and public sewer plants across the state to test the wastewater they discharge into rivers, creeks and streams for three types of PFAS and 1,4-dioxane will go out for public comment next month.

The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission last Thursday voted to push proposed monitoring and minimization rules for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances PFOA, PFOS and GenX, and for 1,4-dixoane, an industrial solvent, to the public in February.

Commission Chair JD Solomon indicated that more than one public hearing will be scheduled during the comment period, which is to be held through April. As of publication, neither specific dates for the comment period, nor dates and locations for hearings, had been announced.

Solomon told fellow commissioners he anticipates the state will receive thousands of comments on the proposed rules packages, which do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for violations.

Those omissions from the proposed rules were the basis of lengthy, at times contentious, discussion among members of the commission.

A majority of commissioners ultimately rejected Commissioner Robin Smith’s motion to inject federally enforceable limits on a half-dozen individual chemical compounds and a mixture of those compounds into the proposed rules package for PFAS.

Amending the rules to include the Environmental Protection Agency’s enforceable levels of PFAS, including PFOA, PFOS and GenX, Solomon said, would substantially change the proposed rule, triggering the need for a new regulatory impact analysis to examine projected costs associated with the rule.

PFAS are a mixture of chemicals used in a host of consumer products from nonstick cookware and food packaging to stain-resistant carpets, water-repellant attire, and makeup.

These chemicals have been found in a number of drinking water sources in North Carolina through discharges from industrial manufacturers, landfills, firefighting facilities and publicly owned treatment works, or POTWs, that accept industry effluent.

Ongoing research into human health effects of PFAS, of which there are upwards of 15,000 related compounds, continues. Some of the more well-studied substances, including PFOA and PFOS, have been linked to health issues including weakened immune response, liver damage, increased cholesterol, high blood pressure, lower infant birth weights, and higher risks of certain cancers.

The Trump administration’s EPA announced last year that it would retain current National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for PFOA and PFOS and extend deadlines for public water treatment plants to come into compliance with the federally established limits for those PFAS.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin also announced plans to rescind regulations and reconsider regulatory determinations for the other PFAS, including GenX.

Solomon said the commission will start talking about legally enforceable limits, also known as numeric standards, for PFAS at its March meeting.

“That is the intention and that will continue to be the intention,” he said, later adding, “Everybody on this panel wants a numeric standard. The question is more, what level are those numeric standards and for what compounds. That’s what we’re going to talk about when we get to the numeric standard part.”

The Environmental Management Commission voted 10-3 to move the proposed PFAS monitoring and minimization rules package to public comment and hearing.

60-day deadline

Under the proposed rules, industrial manufacturers and publicly owned treatment works, which officials call POTWs, will be contacted by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources and given 60 days to conduct baseline sampling for the three PFAS from the time the rules become effective.

Testing would be done quarterly for one year, with results reported to the division. Division officials would then determine whether ongoing sampling is needed based on practical quantitation limits, which are considered the base line in testing laboratories.

The division would decide whether a business or POTW has to develop a minimization plan, one that would take about 2.5 years to be implemented.

When asked how minimization would be measured, Division of Water Resources Deputy Director Julie Grzyb said, “There is nothing in the rule that defines a set level or set goal in the particular case. So, there is some left up to who is reviewing it.”

Minimization, she said, is determined by a number of things, including training and education equipment and seeing whether one product could be substituted for another.

“However, usually we have a water quality standard that we are shooting to meet and that defines the minimization much more clearly. I’ll leave it at that,” Grzyb said.

The proposed rule also does not specify what best management practices a facility must follow or how that facility must reach minimization.

Smith, who voted against moving the proposed rule to public comment, warned the rule may not pass the Rules Review Commission because, among other things, it lacks such standards.

“I think that one of the concerns is this could be an ongoing perpetual monitoring machine that doesn’t result in significant reductions,” she said, adding that a rule should not be sent out for public comment that “has basic drafting problems and gaps in essential decisions.”

“I cannot vote for this motion to be sent to public notice and comment the rule as it currently stands because I think there are too many issues that need to be resolved,” Smith said.

Commissioner Michael Ellison, who seconded the motion to move the rules to public comment, argued that the rules “help us as a state, statewide, reduce our uncertainty as to where the problems are and how bad they are while science continues to advance, while EPA continues whatever research they’re going to do and whatever standards they’re going to promulgate.”

After the vote to move the proposed rules on PFAS to public comment, the commission also agreed to ask for comments on whether industrial businesses and sewage plants should report to the division all 40 PFAS they are required to test for under federal requirements.

Smith made similar arguments against the proposed 1,4-dioxane monitoring and minimization rule that the commission voted 7-6 to move to public comment.

She said that while the proposed rule pertaining to 1,4-dioxane is a “pretty good monitoring rule,” it is “not a good minimization rule.”

“What I don’t want to do is create an impression out there that we have a serious minimization program if we don’t have any teeth in it. I think we need to be honest with the public about what this rule does. I’m not for something that calls itself a minimization rule that doesn’t have any enforceable attachment to it,” she said.

Early in what turned out to be a more than two-hour discussion leading up to their vote on the proposed PFAS monitoring and minimization rules, Solomon reminded commissioners that the votes they cast Thursday would not be their final, saying that getting the rules out for public comment is an incremental step in a process aimed at ultimately reducing PFAS discharges.

Proposed rules that would require industrial polluters to monitor and minimize their discharges of some chemical compounds into drinking water sources may soon go out for public comment.

The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission is scheduled to vote this week on whether to approve proceeding to public notice and hearing proposed monitoring and minimization rules for direct dischargers of three types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances into the state’s surface waters.

Under the proposed rule, all major and minor industrial direct dischargers, and significant industrial users that discharge to publicly owned treatment works, would be required to monitor and implement “minimization activities required to eliminate or significantly reduce” discharges of PFOS, PFOA, and GenX anywhere between three and five years, according to the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality.

Discharge limits for those specific PFAS have yet to be determined.

PFAS exposure has been linked to a number of adverse health impacts to people, including thyroid disease, increased cholesterol, liver damage, and different types of cancers.

The commission will also consider whether to proceed to public notice and hearing proposed 1,4-dioxane monitoring and minimization rules, which would target industries likely to discharge the organic synthetic chemical the Environmental Protection Agency classifies as a likely human carcinogen.

Critics of the proposed rules argue the rules lack any real enforcement because they do not include discharge limits or penalties for industries that increase their discharges.

Various committees of the commission are scheduled to meet beginning at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the ground floor hearing room of the Archdale Building, 512 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh. Those meetings will also be livestreamed on WebEx.

The full commission is scheduled to meet at the same location 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Thursday. The meeting will also be livestreamed.

A district court judge has ruled that Chemours and its predecessor company cannot conceal thousands of pages of documents from the public.

The manufacturing giant failed to provide sufficient evidence the documents include commercially sensitive information that, if released, could competitively undermine the companies, Judge James Dever III concluded in his Dec. 3 ruling.

Information the companies requested to keep under seal are among 25,000 pages of documents lawyers representing public utilities and local governments downstream of Chemours’ Bladen County plant submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina as part of lawsuit those entities brought against the companies in October 2017.

Related: EPA seeks reporting rollback as new study finds hidden PFAS

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, or CFPUA, Brunswick County, Lower Cape Fear Water & Sewer Authority, and Wrightsville Beach aim to recover costs and damages associated with the Fayetteville Works’ plant’s discharges of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, for decades into the Cape Fear River. The river is a drinking water source for tens of thousands of residents.

PFAS are a group of more than 14,000 chemicals used in everyday consumer products including food containers, stain-resistant carpet and water-repellant gear. These human-made chemical compounds are persistent in the environment and have been found to accumulate in humans and animals. Exposure to these substances has been linked to weakened immune function, reproductive and development issues and increased risk of some cancers.

Last February, attorneys for Chemours and its predecessor company DuPont filed a motion requesting that the court keep thousands of pages of those documents under seal, arguing information in those documents contain internal communications about chemical production that, if made public, could give a leg up to their competitors.

Dever denied that request. He also rejected a second motion by the companies’ attorneys seeking to keep from the public an April 2018 report of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency detailing its inspection the Fayetteville Works facility.

“Defendants’ second motion to seal fails for the same reason as defendant’s first motion to seal. Defendants provide insufficient evidence to demonstrate that sealing the [Toxic Substance Act Compliance Monitoring Inspection] report serves a compelling interest which outweighs the public’s right of access,” Dever wrote in his 13-page ruling.

A document’s “status as confidential or commercially sensitive alone does not justify its sealing,” he continued.

“We thank the Court for its wise ruling in denying the motion to seal,” Cammie Bellamy, CFPUA public information officer, said in an email responding to a request for comment. “CFPUA will oppose every attempt by Chemours to delay, obfuscate, and deny the public its right to access the facts of this case. The documents that Chemours and its codefendants wanted to hide from the public include records of its decades of wrongdoing. The people of Southeastern North Carolina deserve better. CFPUA continues to work to hold Chemours accountable for its decades of polluting of the Cape Fear River – the source water for 500,000 North Carolinians.”

Dever also denied requests submitted to the court last April by environmental and community organizations, and the NAACP New Hanover County Branch, to intervene in the case and object to the companies’ motion to keep the documents sealed, ruling those motions are moot.

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a motion to intervene in the case on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, and the Environmental Justice Community Action Network.

“We think that this is absolutely the right outcome,” Jean Zhuang, a senior attorney with the center’s Chapel Hill office, said in a telephone interview Friday morning. “In this case, the companies have concealed decades of pollution in southeastern North Carolina and harmed drinking water from the Cape Fear River for 500,000 people.”

The release of the documents comes at a crucial time, she said, because Chemours wants to expand its production of vinyl ethers, which are a class of compounds used to create a variety of products used in a range of technologies from semiconductor chips to aviation components.

The company’s permit application for that expansion is under review by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

“Chemours is expecting the public to just trust them while they are planning a massive expansion of their facility,” Zhuang said. “After all these decades of harm they have caused on North Carolina communities, secrecy is not an option anymore.”

Tests commissioned by the SELC and Cape Fear River Watch showed that Chemours is releasing “extremely high levels” of ultra-short chain PFAS, which are highly mobile and difficult to remove from raw drinking water, into the Cape Fear River.

The results of those tests, released last October, confirmed earlier test results published by CFPUA, which has spent tens of millions of dollars upgrading its Sweeney Water Treatment Plant in downtown Wilmington to filtrate PFAS from reaching its customers’ taps.

CFPUA officials, along with those from other downstream facilities, are calling on the state to enforce polluters to treat chemicals at the source and set enforceable limits in discharge permits.

Anne Harvey David, chief counsel for environmental justice for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, which asked to intervene in the case on behalf of the NAACP New Hanover County Branch, said in a release, “An effort to conceal information that details with the health and safety of thousands of North Carolinians cannot go unchallenged. We are happy to see this decision in favor of protecting public access to these documents. Information and transparency around the extent of the pollution is fundamental for the health and safety of the impacted communities.”

NACCP New Hanover County Branch President LeRon Montgomery said last week’s ruling “is one win in a long battle for our community to live free from harmful contamination of our air and water,” according to the release.

“The importance of this decision goes far beyond who it will impact today,” he stated. “The pollution of the Cape Fear River will impact generations to come, but so will having access to this information.”

As of this publication, it was unclear when the documents would be made public or whether the companies’ attorneys would appeal the ruling.

Reprinted from North Carolina Health News

Though the holiday season is here — with all the responsibilities it entails — some North Carolinians might consider adding one more thing to their to-do lists: weighing in on an EPA proposal that could reshape how the government collects information about per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The agency is taking input during the public comment period, which is open now and closes on Dec. 29.

On Nov. 10, the EPA announced a proposal to loosen reporting requirements for businesses that make or use PFAS. Agency officials say the changes are intended to make the rules easier for companies to follow and to avoid duplicate or unnecessary paperwork, while still allowing EPA to collect key information about how PFAS are used and what risks they may pose.

Currently PFAS are regulated under the Toxic Substances Control Act, a federal law that allows the EPA to require businesses to report, test, track or even ban chemicals that may threaten human health or the environment.

In October 2023, the Biden administration’s EPA finalized a one-time PFAS reporting rule under TSCA’s Section 8. The rule requires companies that manufactured or imported PFAS between 2011 and 2022 to disclose how the chemicals were used and provide available environmental or health data. Industry groups have pushed back, saying the rule is too costly and difficult for small businesses to navigate.

“This Biden-era rule would have imposed crushing regulatory burdens and nearly $1 billion in implementation costs on American businesses,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said when announcing the proposed changes. “Today’s proposal is grounded in common sense and the law, allowing us to collect the information we need to help combat PFAS contamination without placing ridiculous requirements on manufacturers, especially the small businesses that drive our country’s economy.”

But environmental advocates and clean water managers say the proposal would significantly weaken PFAS oversight.

“By EPA’s own estimate, the proposed rule would eliminate more than 97 percent of the information that would have otherwise been generated by the (current) rule,” said Stephanie Schweickert, NC Conservation Network’s director of Environmental Health Campaigns.

“With PFAS and Chemours in North Carolina, we really need more information about PFAS, not less. This (proposal) is very problematic for public health in North Carolina,” Schweickert said. 

Harder-to-detect PFAS raise new concerns

The proposal comes when North Carolina researchers are uncovering PFAS pollution that standard monitoring can’t detect — raising new questions about whether EPA already has blind spots.

Recent Duke University research uncovered a previously unrecognized source of contamination in the Haw River, a tributary of the Cape Fear River: tiny solid PFAS “precursor” particles in industrial wastewater from a Burlington textile manufacturer that entered the local sewer system. These nanoparticles don’t show up in standard PFAS tests, which typically look for dissolved chemicals. But during wastewater treatment processes, the particles break down into better-known PFAS compounds that can contaminate rivers, drinking water sources and agricultural sludge.

At peak discharge, researchers detected precursor-particle levels exceeding 12 million parts per trillion — millions of times higher than EPA’s enforceable drinking-water limits of 4-10 ppt for regulated PFAS. The findings highlight major blind spots in current monitoring and suggest that industries may be releasing far more PFAS (or PFAS precursors) than regulators currently can detect.

“We have some of the most sophisticated instruments in the world for PFAS analysis, and we couldn’t detect these until we dramatically changed our approach,” said lead researcher Lee Ferguson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Duke, in a release. “Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know, and there is a lesson to be learned about blind spots in our analyses when it comes to looking for new PFAS in the environment.”

In a follow-up email, Ferguson said the findings show why PFAS disclosure rules should be strengthened, not rolled back. “Our work highlights why it is important to increase, not decrease, PFAS waste discharge reporting requirements for industries.”

Downstream utilities feel the impact

A public utility that relies on the Cape Fear River, echoed Ferguson’s concerns.

The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, which provides drinking water to more than 200,000 customers in New Hanover County and spent $43 million installing a granular activated carbon filtration system in 2022 to remove PFAS, said weakened reporting would make their job harder.

“We are concerned that these (proposed) exemptions could create additional uncertainty for utilities, such as CFPUA, that are located downstream from known PFAS polluters,” the agency said.

“Utilities rely upon detailed, accurate data from potential and known contamination sources to inform our treatment processes in order to protect the drinking water we provide our customers,” the statement continued. “Rolling back reporting requirements for PFAS manufacturers passes more of the burden of monitoring and testing source water on to utilities and our ratepayers.”

Advocates say the stakes extend beyond utilities.

“The EPA is carving out loopholes under the Toxic Substances Control Act that allow industry to avoid reporting its use of PFAS — current forever chemicals that pose serious risks to people’s health,” a Southern Environmental Law Center spokesperson said in an emailed statement to NC Health News. 

“These exemptions include PFAS produced as byproducts, the very issue at the heart of the Chemours crisis,” the SELC statement said. “For decades, Chemours discharged GenX as a byproduct before intentionally manufacturing it, yet the harm caused by byproduct PFAS is no different from that caused by intentionally produced PFAS. This reality devastated 500,000 North Carolinians who drank—and continue to drink—water contaminated by Chemours’ PFAS pollution, and it remains true for communities across the country today.”

Health risks tied to PFAS exposure

These gaps in monitoring matter because PFAS exposure has been associated with a growing list of health concerns. Often called “forever chemicals” because they break down slowly and accumulate in the body over time, PFAS have been linked to immune system suppression, developmental and reproductive harm, thyroid disruption, elevated cholesterol and certain cancers.

In North Carolina, the GenX Exposure Study has documented elevated PFAS levels in blood samples from people living near the Cape Fear River, along with health markers such as increased cholesterol and changes in liver enzymes that have been associated with PFAS exposure. Researchers say the findings underscore the risks for communities living downstream of industrial PFAS sources.

“Some PFAS are formed as byproducts of chemical manufacturing. These chemicals, even though they aren’t used to make new products, are released into air and water and have been found in the blood of people who rely on downstream drinking water,” said N.C. State University epidemiologist Jane Hoppin, when responding to questions about the new Duke research and the EPA’s proposal.

“In our research, PFMOAA was detected at the highest levels in blood samples collected more than a year before the contamination was publicly identified,” she said. “Other byproducts of PFAS — Nafion byproduct 2 and PFO5DoA — were found in nearly all Wilmington residents tested in 2017 and remain in people’s blood today. We need more, not less, information about chemical byproducts to ensure drinking water safety.”

“The mission of the EPA, in the beginning, was to protect the public and the environment,” said Robert Bullard, a professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University who’s widely regarded as the father of the environmental justice movement. “Anytime you’re relaxing rules that would not only threaten the environment but also compromise public health — that’s the wrong way to go.”

The public comment period is open through Dec. 29. To submit a comment, go to: https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/EPA-HQ-OPPT-2020-0549-0311.

This article first appeared on North Carolina Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The state Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Raleigh.

Per a draft meeting agenda, the board, which advises secretaries of state regulatory agencies, will review and consider providing a formal response to the human health risk assessment for 1,4-Dioxane in Drinking Water Legislative Report released in May 2024.

The draft agenda also includes informational items for the board, including a presentation by state Division of Waste Management staff on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances data submitted by landfill facilities across the state and on the utilization of the Bernard Allen Drinking Water Fund for PFAS compounds.

The meeting will be held in the ground floor hearing room of the Archdale Building, 512 N. Salisbury St. in Raleigh.

The public may attend the meeting in person, virtually (webinar number: 2434 343 5955), or by telephone at 1-415-655-0003 US Toll, access code 243 626 85243.

An in-person public comment period will be held at the meeting. Anyone who wishes to speak may sign up upon arriving at the meeting.

The Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board includes experts in toxicology, public health, ecology, engineering, and other related fields. It’s members assist the state departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services by recommending reviews and evaluations of contaminants, acting as consultants on DEQ’s determinations to regulate contaminants, and helping the agencies identify contaminants of concern and determine which contaminants should be studied further.

WILMINGTON — Deepening the Wilmington Harbor would disperse PFAS now mingling in the riverbed’s sediment into marshes and onto public beaches, accelerate erosion, exacerbate flooding, destroy habitat, and is not economically justified, area residents said during a state-hosted public hearing.

Many who spoke at the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management’s hearing in downtown Wilmington Monday night argued that the federal draft environmental statement released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers earlier this fall fails to fully examine potential impacts associated with the proposed project.

The draft study examines different alternatives for the North Carolina State Ports Authority’s aim to accommodate larger container ships at the Wilmington port.

The preferred alternative selected in the study calls for deepening the harbor from 42 to 47 feet, widening the channel in multiple areas, and extending the ocean entrance to the river. These changes would accommodate vessels that can carry 14,000 20-by-8-foot shipping containers, ports officials say.

But several of the nearly 20 people who spoke argued that the proposed project would not benefit the local economy, and its environmental harms would drastically overwhelm any associated economic benefits. About 70 people attended the hearing.

“This project is a poor economic decision given the massive cost compared to the miniscule benefits,” said Jessica Hardee, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “The cost of deepening the harbor and the channel is projected to be over $1 billion. However, the only noted benefit of this project are cost savings to international shipping companies who use the port, not North Carolina or local communities. This project provides little benefit to the Wilmington area and North Carolinians while also threatening significant damage to the coastal region.”

One striking absence from the study is how churning up and moving per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in the sediment of the lower Cape Fear River might affect the environment, animals that rely on that environment, and human health, some speakers said.

“Even though we all know that there’s PFAS in the sediment of the river, the Corps says we can’t consider that because it’s not a regulated chemical,” said Wilmington resident and geologist Roger Shew.

But PFAS, or similar chemical compounds of which there are more than 14,000 used to make a host of consumer goods from food containers to stain-resistant clothing and carpet, will be regulated by the time the channel would be deepened in the early to mid-2030s, he said.

“And since 15 million of the 35 million cubic yards of dredge material will be used as beneficial placement in marshes on our area beaches, we should know the content of that sediment and potential impacts with sediment placement,” Shew said. “A core function of an (environmental impact statement) is consideration of potential harm. Therefore, they should and must include PFAS in the study.”

A study published late last month found concentrations of 56 PFAS in blood samples obtained from 119 Wilmington residents between 2010 and 2016.

Two chemical compounds – TFA and PFMOAA – were the dominant PFAS in the samples, “despite their likely short half-lives in the human body,” according to the study.

TFA, or trifluoroacetic acid, and PFMOAA, or perfluoro-2-methoxyacetic acid, are ultrashort-chain PFAS, which are the smallest type of PFAS and hardest to remove from drinking water sources.

The blood samples examined in the study were obtained before the public was made aware in 2017 that an upstream industrial facility had been discharging PFAS directly into the Cape Fear River, the drinking water sources for tens of thousands, since the 1980s.

“While current TFA and PFMOAA levels have likely decreased substantially from those in the historical blood serum samples evaluated here as a result of mandated discharge controls at the upstream fluorochemical manufacturer, this study, along with other recent studies, highlights the importance ultrashort-chain PFAS can play in determining the overall human PFAS burden,” the study states.

Wilmington resident Kaiti Sheehan said the fact that PFAS is not considered in the draft environmental impact statement, or DEIS, “is a slap in the face to residents who are paying for a $42 million granulated active-carbon filtration system and still facing the health consequences that have come from 40 years of contamination from our upstream bad actor.”

“I do genuinely hope that you will look and you will see how much the community has come out tonight in recognition that this is bad for Wilmington and this is bad for North Carolina,” she said.

Others raised concerns about how deepening the harbor to allow for larger ships to travel the 28 miles upriver to the port would increase erosion on the string of bird islands that pepper the lower Cape Fear River and the riverbanks themselves.

The Cape Fear River supports almost 30% of the state’s nesting American oystercatchers.

Audubon North Carolina’s Lindsay Addison, a coastal biologist, said she and her staff are on the Cape Fear River two to three days a week between March and August and at least once during each of the other months of the year.

“We have seen progressively the impacts of the larger and larger classes of ships coming up the river,” she said. “We saw larger, more severe wakes. The DEIS does not take this into account. The Corps, in its beneficial use plan, talks about maybe putting sediment on 2 miles of the shoreline.”

Birds nest on high-tide lines, Addison said. Waves created by a large ship’s wake push water “like a tsunami” over nests and sweep nests away.

“There is no model in the DEIS that accounts for this,” Addison said. “There is no data collection in the DEIS that accounts for this. In fact, there’s no new data collection in the DEIS. They’re relying on data that was already collected. They told us in the stakeholder meeting, flat out, that they’re not going to collected new data so impacts to the migratory birds in the DEIS are not taken into account.”

Officials with the Division of Coastal Management, which is under the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, announced Monday night that the public comment period on the draft study has been extended from Dec. 5 to Dec. 20.

Written comments may be mailed to Federal Consistency Coordinator, 400 Commerce Ave., Morehead City, NC  28557, or emailed to Federalconsistencycomments@deq.nc.gov with “Federal Consistency: USACE Wilmington Harbor 403 Navigation Project” in the subject line.

More information on the proposed project is on the Corps’ website.

Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant has once again discharged elevated levels of 1,4-dioxane into a creek that drains into a river within the Cape Fear River Basin, according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

The plant detected a concentration of 651 parts per billion, or ppb, of the chemical compound, one the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has categorized as a likely human carcinogen, in a sample it collected Nov. 7 from Hasketts Creek, according to a DEQ release.

Hasketts Creek drains into the Deep River, which converges with the Haw River to form the Cape Fear River.

Using the EPA’s toxicity calculations for lifetime exposure, DEQ “has determined that the average monthly concentration of 1,4-dixoane in the Asheboro discharge safe for downstream water supplies is 22 ppb or less,” the release states.

The department’s Division of Water Resources took additional sampling and is waiting to confirm results. Division officials have notified downstream drinking water utilities, which provide drinking water to some 900,000 North Carolinians.

Earlier this year, downstream water utilities were notified that sampling results by the state and Asheboro revealed 1,4-dixoane levels were more than 10 times higher than the average established as safe for downstream water supplies.

DEQ’s announcement Friday comes a little more than three weeks after the EPA hosted a public hearing in Asheboro regarding the agency’s objection to the city’s proposed permit that excludes an effluent discharge limit for 1,4-dioxane.

All but one person who spoke at that hearing urged the EPA to uphold its objection to the proposed National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit issued by the division.

DEQ issued an NPDES permit to the plant in August 2023 that included effluent discharge limits for 1,4-dioxane.

The city sued and, in September 2024, the North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings struck the limits from the permit.

DEQ’s appeal of that ruling is pending in Wake County Superior Court.

“Monitoring is ongoing at wastewater treatment plants in the Cape Fear River Basin to track 1,4-dixoane,” according to the release. “Significant reductions have occurred at some wastewater treatment plants through a collaborative effort with the Environmental Management commission (EMC), DEQ and municipal operators. DEQ will continue to work with the EMC to seek additional ways to achieve reductions in 1,4-dioxane discharges.”

On Thursday, the EMC voted to push to a later date hearing proposed monitoring and minimization rules for 1,4-dixoane and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, from industrial users and dischargers.

The commission is not scheduled to meet again this year.

Sampling data is posted on the division’s website.

The commission responsible for adopting rules to protect the state’s air and water resources voted Thursday to wait on hearing proposed monitoring and minimization rules for PFAS and 1,4-dioxane from industrial users and dischargers.

The Environmental Management Commission committees met Wednesday and the full commission met Thursday in the Archdale Building in Raleigh.

Not enough members voted Thursday to waive the 30-day rule that would allow the full commission to take action on proposed rules for for 1,4-dioxane and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

For a waiver to be granted, at least two-thirds of the members must vote in favor of waiving the bylaw that requires 30 days between when a committee votes on a rule and when it goes before the commission.

Though PFAS and 1,4-dioxane are human-made and long-lasting chemicals, they’re not the same because the compounds have different structures and different uses.

PFAS are long-lasting chemicals used in industrial and commercial processes as well as consumer products, while 1,4-dioxane, a likely carcinogen, is an organic synthetic chemical used in specialized industrial processes that may enter the environment through discharges where it is used or produced.

With PFAS, because of their widespread use and their persistence in the environment, many “are found in the blood of people and animals all over the world, including NC, and are present at low levels in a variety of food products and in the environment,” documents state.

The commission’s water quality committee tasked staff within the Division of Water Resources, under the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, on Nov. 12, 2024, to develop a PFAS minimization initiative for all industrial direct dischargers to surface water and all significant industrial users that discharge to publicly owned treatment works.

“The minimization initiative will require monitoring for PFAS, and implementation of minimization activities required to eliminate or significantly reduce discharges of PFOS, PFOA, and GenX, (levels TBD) over a 3-to-5-year period,” according to agenda documents.

In March of this year, the EMC water quality committee directed staff to develop a rule to support their “effort towards understanding the sources and levels of 1,4-dioxane.”

The proposed rules for both chemicals were drafted to monitor publicly owned treatment works with local pretreatment programs, and monitor and minimize significant industrial users, and industrial direct dischargers.

The Wilmington City Council on Wednesday night unanimously adopted a resolution opposing Chemours’ proposed expansion of its Fayetteville Works plant.

The resolution asks the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “and other relevant regulatory bodies to deny any permits or approvals related to such expansion until Chemours has fully remediated existing contamination and demonstrated a sustained, transparent commitment to environmental and public health protections.”

The resolution also states that the council formally opposes the plant’s releases of ultra-short chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, into downstream drinking water intakes and asks DEQ to deny permits that would allow Chemours to continue to discharge those chemical compounds into the environment.

Chemours has applied for a permit to expand its production of vinyl ethers, a class of compounds used to create a variety of products used in a range of technologies from semiconductor chips to aviation components.

The planned expansion has drawn considerable blowback from communities downstream of the plant, which discharged PFAS directly into the Cape Fear River, groundwater, and air unbeknownst to the public for decades.

PFAS specific to the Bladen County plant has been documented in the river, which is the drinking water source for some 500,000 North Carolinians, as well as in private drinking water wells.

“These discharges have resulted in significant public health concerns, environmental degradation, and economic burdens on local governments and residents who have had to invest in costly water treatment upgrades and health monitoring,” the resolution states.

The council, “calls on Chemours to engage in meaningful dialogue with affected communities, disclose all relevant environmental data, and prioritize the health and safety of North Carolinians over corporate expansion.”

Guest Commentary

To stimulate discussion and debate, Coastal Review welcomes differing viewpoints on topical coastal issues.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently working on an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Port of Wilmington’s plan to deepen the Cape Fear River, with the stated goal of accommodating larger cargo ships. As a retired Corps of Engineers senior project engineer, I feel it’s crucial to raise some serious concerns about this initiative.

The North Carolina State Ports Authority has significantly overlooked other viable alternatives, besides incremental deepening, and failed to assess the extensive infrastructure damage that increased freight traffic could inflict on our roads and bridges. This is particularly evident in major new projects like the replacement of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and Wilmington’s Rail Realignment Project. Both are billion-dollar investments intended to accommodate the large volume of new truck and rail freight movement. One only need to look at the definition of the secondary effects as defined by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). These secondary effects clearly relate to the need to expand the port’s freight-handling capacity.

Deepening the river will only worsen flooding, affecting areas around the downtown Wilmington waterfront and the historically significant North Carolina Battleship site. It will also lead to a substantial loss of vital wetlands and floodplains due to increasing saltwater intrusion, a value the Ports Authority conveniently understates in its Section 203 report required under the Clean Water Act.

From 1980 to 2017, DuPont, and now Chemours, released vast quantities of hazardous PFAS compounds, polluting nearly 100 miles of the Cape Fear River, including the proposed dredging prisms defined in the port’s set of alternatives. This legacy of contamination must be a central part of the EIS evaluation, as it directly challenges the claimed benefits of the project. Additionally, the reverse osmosis water treatment plant in Brunswick County, which aims to remove PFAS from drinking water, will release highly concentrated PFAS-contaminated wastewater 3 miles upstream of the port. This will further complicate the environmental challenges posed by the proposed dredging project, as well as future dredging operations and maintenance requirements, which once again go unaddressed in the port’s Section 203 report.

Why is this a critical oversight? PFAS clings to or settles into fine sediments like silt and clay found in the soil in and around the dredge-soil prism proposed to be dredged. It’s only logical that when these contaminated sediments are dredged, a safe disposal management plan would be an essential requirement for both federal and state regulators. When PFAS is detected in the dredged sediment, our regulators need to determine whether the material is suitable for placement or disposal, especially regarding upland sites or beach renourishment projects.

The Corps’ “Beneficial Use” strategy aims to repurpose the dredged material as a resource. However, this faces significant hurdles within the scope of this proposed project, as regulators decide how to prevent PFAS from being released back into the environment. The Eagles Island disposal area, which predates NEPA and was built on a previously healthy wetland and floodplain, is not an appropriate site for disposing of contaminated dredged soil because it lacks a liner. Furthermore, researchers in North Carolina and across the globe continue to investigate the damage that PFAS is causing to aquatic ecosystems as it transfers from sediment back into the water column during dredging and placement operations.

Without the Corps thoroughly addressing PFAS contamination, there is zero chance of ensuring the health and well-being of those who rely on the river’s resources in the future. This is particularly important when considering deepening options for the beneficial uses of these contaminated sediments. PFAS contamination adds another layer of complexity that will require extensive testing and could significantly impact project costs and feasibility.

There is no question that this proposed dredging project will certainly disturb sediments, releasing PFAS and other contaminants back into the water, which poses risks to aquatic life and human health.

Key issues include the following:

• Contamination — Dedging stirs PFAS, disrupts water quality.
• Aquatic risks — PFAS can bioaccumulate in marine organisms.
• Health concerns — Contaminated fish and drinking water pose human health risks.
• Regulatory challenges — Lack of consistent state or federal guidelines will create confusion for any of the deepening alternatives proposed under the port’s Section 203 study.

To enable the federal and state governments to properly manage PFAS risks related to deepening or maintenance dredging within the navigation channel, increased testing, ongoing research, development of standards, and best management practices are essential.

PFAS contamination is impacting rivers and harbors across our country. Michigan’s Department of Environment now mandates PFAS testing for sediments in harbor dredging, which is causing project delays, such as in Grand Haven, due to unclear safety standards. The Corps warns that this could reduce dredging operations from 24 to only three to five harbors annually due to rising costs — up to 200% higher with resampling — and the lack of precise guidance.

Given these critical issues, taxpayers should be alarmed by a proposed port project that fails to account for its environmental and infrastructural costs. Suppose we don’t consider the long-term implications of the port’s proposed alterations to our river. In that case, we might find ourselves stuck with unsustainable financial and environmental costs, while the economic benefits remain questionable at best.

It is our river, yet it has been treated as a stepchild compared to other, less critical economic priorities. Standard economic models often overlook the real financial value of natural resources and ecological systems like those on the lower Cape Fear River. Since nature’s “goods and services,” such as clean air, fresh water, and fully functioning floodplains and wetlands, are often considered free, they are becoming overused and undervalued. As I’ve tried to explain here, the degradation of our environment directly affects our citizens, taxpayers, and the species that depend on healthy ecosystems.

As the Corps prepares its EIS, it is essential to find more sustainable alternatives than digging us into a deeper hole that we can’t escape.  If not for us, then how about our kids, grandchildren, and their grandchildren?

If you have an opinion or concerns about this project, please submit your comments to:

By Email: WilmingtonHarbor403@usace.army.mil, or by mail to  ATTN: Wilmington Harbor 403, 69 Darlington Ave., Wilmington, NC 28403, or by comment cards at the public meetings.

Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of Coastal Review or our publisher, the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission’s Water Quality Committee may take action next week on proposed monitoring and minimization rules for three PFAS and 1,4-dioxane.

The proposed rules targeting the three per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, called PFOA, PFOS and GenX are on the committee’s Nov. 12 meeting agenda. The committee is also expected to take action on proposed rules for 1,4-dioxane.

The proposed rules are not on the agenda of the full commission, which is scheduled to meet on the following day. Commissioners will select a chair and vice-chair during the meeting.

The proposed rules would require industries that directly discharge compounds into surface water and all significant industrial users that discharge to publicly owned treatment works to monitor their releases of PFOA, PFOS, GenX, and 1,4-dioxane.

Meetings will be held in the ground floor hearing room of the Archdale Building, 512 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh.

The public may attend in-person, by computer, or by telephone.

The Nov. 12 committee meetings will begin at 9 a.m. and may be joined online at https://ncgov.webex.com/ncgov/j.php?MTID=m226fb96f0777719d55b063d1c572423b using meeting number/access code 2439 988 8950.

To join the full commission meeting at 9 a.m. Nov. 13 visit https://ncgov.webex.com/ncgov/j.php?MTID=m3a68c6333a6a2633b6526360bfae676b. Use meeting number/access code 2435 258 8225.

The password for both days is NCDEQ (62337 when dialing from a phone or video system.

To join by phone, dial +1-415-655-0003 US Toll.

Agendas and supporting documents are available on the commission’s website.

Guest Commentary

To stimulate discussion and debate, Coastal Review welcomes differing viewpoints on topical coastal issues. Note: This piece was updated Nov. 3 to correct an erroneous statistic regarding Chemours’ proposed expansion.

One of the state’s most egregious corporate polluters has evaded public accountability for years. Now, the company is seeking to expand its output of toxic chemicals in eastern North Carolina. 

Since the mid 1970s the Chemours chemical manufacturing facility in Fayetteville has been spewing toxic PFAS into the air and water, contaminating the air and drinking water, food and bodies of water of a half-million people in the southeast region. The public was unaware of this until 2017, when researchers at NC State University detected high levels of the chemical GenX in the river’s drinking water. The revelation was so egregious community group Clean Cape Fear engaged the U.N. Human Rights Council to find Chemours and its parent company DuPont had committed business-related human rights abuses and called for accountability. Exposure to PFAS is known to cause certain types of cancers, immune system suppression, and developmental issues. But even after the news broke about this public health crisis in 2017, Chemours continued to produce PFAS and poisoning the Cape Fear River region. 

Beyond polluting the Cape Fear River, which supplies drinking water to more than 500,000 people downstream of Chemours’ discharge pipes, Chemours’ airborne PFAS emissions have poisoned at least 7,000 private drinking water wells across ten counties. This is not just a historical issue – it’s an ongoing crisis. Eight years after learning about GenX in North Carolina’s tap water and state regulators still do not know the full scope of groundwater contamination to the region. 

Despite this legacy of harm across southeastern North Carolina, the company has recently applied to NC DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) for an air permit to dramatically expand its Fayetteville chemical production operations and increase its PFAS production and waste. Chemours has demonstrated a pattern of corporate misconduct, concealing information about the dangers of its water and air pollution from regulators and the public for decades. The company has violated court orders to curb PFAS pollution. And, earlier this year, the state expanded its PFAS testing zone, ordering Chemours to test for PFAS in an additional 150,000 private wells in six counties – a sign of how far these toxic chemicals have spread across the state.  

This is not a company that can be trusted to expand its operations responsibly, and it is one local example of the  PFAS pollution crisis, which is now a nationwide problem. Thoughtful and common-sense federal solutions were recently put in place, but  are now being rescinded.  

In 2024, the Biden Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) restricted six PFAS chemicals (GenX/HFPO-DA, PFBS, PFHxS PFNA, PFOA, and PFOS), under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which the agency estimated could benefit up to 105 million people nationwide. But the Trump administration is now in the process of trying to rescind some of those restrictions that would have helped reduce PFAS pollution in public tap water. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and its partners are opposing the EPA’s proposed rollbacks and have turned to the courts for protection.  

Until federal regulators issue clear guidance and protections for PFAS, it is up to state agencies to protect our health and natural resources. In North Carolina, that means DEQ must reject Chemours’ air permit application and do its job to protect North Carolinians from being further poisoned by this company’s toxic chemical pollution.

Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of Coastal Review or our publisher, the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

Chemours’ air permit application to expand production at its Fayetteville Works plant excludes emissions data that should be disclosed to the public, environmental lawyers say.

The company “improperly withheld vital emission data from the public” in its Aug. 14 application to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air Quality, according to a letter Southern Environmental Law Center attorneys sent the department last month.

“We urge the Department to require Chemours to re-submit its application with disclosed emissions data,” the Sept. 19 letter states. “North Carolina law clearly states that emission data cannot be kept secret.”

Jess Loizeaux, Chemours’ communications leader, refuted that claim, writing in an email responding to a request for comment, “our permit application fully disclosed the projected emissions associated with the expansion.”

“Certain details included in the application submitted to DAQ – such as production capacity, operating hours, and emissions factors – were redacted from the public version because they are considered confidential business information and, if made public, could harm our competitive position,” Loizeaux said. “Protecting confidential business information is standard practice and does not affect transparency regarding environmental impacts.”

Attorneys for Chemours and its predecessor company DuPont made a similar argument earlier this year when they filed a court motion to keep under seal thousands of pages of documents they say include “non-public facts” that largely pertain to chemical production.

Lawyers representing public utilities and local governments downstream of Chemours’ Bladen County plant submitted 25,000 pages of documents to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina as part of lawsuit those entities brought against the companies in October 2017.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, Brunswick County, Lower Cape Fear Water & Sewer Authority, and Wrightsville Beach aim to recover costs and damages associated with the Fayetteville Works’ plant’s discharges of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, for decades into the Cape Fear River. The river is a drinking water source for tens of thousands of residents in the region.

The court had not rendered a decision on Chemours’ request as of this story’s publication.

In 2020, Chemours submitted an application to renew its Title V permit, which applies to major source of air emissions, for its Fayetteville Works plant to the state Division of Air Quality.

Two years later, the company applied for a separate permit to expand its production of vinyl ethers and IXM.

Chemours revised and resubmitted that permit application to expand only its production of vinyl ethers last August. Vinyl ethers are a class of compounds used to create a variety of products used in a range of technologies from semiconductor chips to aviation components.

Vinyl ethers are used to create a wide variety of products, including polymers for adhesives, coatings, and plastics

The expansion would pertain to the plant’s two existing vinyl ethers production units, Loizeaux said.

“As outlined in the revised permit application, additional abatement technology will be installed alongside each expansion and is projected to decrease the site’s overall fluorinated emissions by approximately 15%, despite an increase in production,” she said. “A timeline for the expansions has not yet been set.”

Southern Environmental Law Center attorneys argue in their Sept. 19 letter to DEQ that Chemours is violating provisions within the state law that outlines protection and disclosure rules for confidential information.

The application, “blacks out emission rates from stack testing, uncontrolled emission factors, hours of operation, maximum hours of operation, historic production, and post-modification production capacity. The information is necessary to verify and fully understand the emissions and authorized emissions at the facility and cannot be withheld from the public,” according to the letter.

The letter goes on to state that Chemours previously disclosed similar information in previous submissions to DEQ.

“Chemours’ about-face from its past submissions further confirms that this information cannot be treated as confidential,” the letter states.

Last April, the SELC, on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch, asked DEQ to deny Chemours’ request to expand production at its Bladen County plant, arguing that the company’s air permit application was riddled with flaws.

As part of 2019 consent order with DEQ and Cape Fear River Watch, Chemours installed a thermal oxidizer to capture and destroy PFAS from emitting into the air. The order also requires the company to test tens of thousands of private drinking water wells for PFAS contamination throughout the region.

In a 20-page letter to DEQ, SELC attorneys argue Chemours questioned the efficacy of thermal destruction technology on PFAS.

“Investigating Chemours’ thermal oxidizer specifically, [the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] determined that, due to a lack of data, ‘removal processes for products of incomplete combustion or of destruction of potential compounds not studied … are still unclear.’ In other words, it is possible that the company’s thermal oxidizer does not fully destroy many PFAS. Some may break down into other harmful chemicals, and others may not be destroyed at all,” the letter states.

DEQ Interim Deputy Communications Director Shawn Taylor said in an email earlier this month that while air quality officials deem the latest version of Chemours’ application administratively complete, “the Division may require additional information from the applicant to conduct its technical review.”

“The Division plans to schedule a full public engagement process, including a public comment period and public hearings, to be announced at a later date,” he said.

The Environmental Management Commission voted unanimously Thursday to send a rule outlining health-based standards for three per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances to the state Rules Review Commission.

The 15-member commission also wrapped up the rulemaking process to “clarify” the definition of wetlands, as directed by a summer 2023 session law. The draft language now heads to the Office of Administrative Hearings. Per the session law, the rule is exempt from the Rules Review Commission.

During the environmental commission’s meeting held in Raleigh and streamed virtually, members voted on the draft rule that specifically targets PFOA, PFOS, and GenX in groundwater, which supports about half of drinking water in North Carolina.

Under the rule that is now expected to go before the rules commission at its Oct. 30 meeting, permitted releases of PFAS to groundwater will be limited. The rule also establishes goals for cleaning contamination in groundwater and ensures residents whose drinking water exceeds contamination limits receive alternative water supplies.

Comments the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality received on the rule through a public comment period late last year overwhelmingly supported the rule, but, as Commissioner Dr. Jackie MacDonald Gibson noted Thursday, the public also raised concerns that the rule did not set standards for additional PFAS.

“It’s a very emotional issue,” Gibson said. “I went to the (public) hearing in Wilmington and people there, their families have been directly affected by PFAS exposure to the point that some people were afraid to have their kids drink water at school. I think a lot of people are going to be glad that we’re moving forward with this. They’re going to wish we were doing more.”

The environmental commission’s groundwater and waste management committee last year voted to omit five of the eight compounds DEQ staff originally presented to be included in the rule.

The committee chose to focus on PFOS and PFOA, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies as likely carcinogens, and GenX, a compound specific to Chemours.

Commissioner Tim Baumgartner, who chairs the groundwater and waste management committee, explained that the compounds that were omitted – PFBS, PFNA, PFHxS, PFBA and PFHxA – are being regulated at the practical quantitation limit, or PQL.

PQL is considered the base line in testing laboratories.

“It’s not that we’re not regulating PFAS. It is a matter of what the quantitative limit is for remediation, or what the target level is,” he said.

Commissioner Robin Smith said she regretted that the commission did not adopt health-based standards for all eight PFAS as initially presented by DEQ.

“It would have actually helped some land owners and some responsible parties who need to clean up groundwater by providing them with a health-based standard that is above the PQL,” Smith said. “I’m going to vote for these. I think this is a good rule, but to me, I can’t follow the reasoning of dropping the other five when, in fact those would have made the rules less stringent, but still would have maintained a health-based standard for those other five.”

Environmental Commission Chair JD Solomon responded, saying that instead of using a health-based equation, one that is subject to change, for the compounds that were omitted, the commission “defaulted to PQL.”

“Keep as much PFAS out of the water as possible,” he said. “So, while PFAS is being debated at the national level, and whatever level, we decided as a body to keep it as stringent as possible, even for cleanups.”

If approved by the rules commission next month, the rule would become effective Nov. 1.

A proposed draft rule requiring monitoring and development of PFAS minimization initiatives for dischargers into surface water will be on the commission’s water quality committee’s agenda in November.

Members of that committee voted 4-2 Wednesday to include the draft rule on their meeting scheduled Nov. 12. The proposed rule would require industries that directly discharge compounds into surface water and all significant industrial users that discharge to publicly owned treatment works to monitor their releases of PFOA, PFOS and GenX.

If the committee approves the rule, it will go to the full commission for consideration Nov. 13.

During staff comments, the commissioners were informed that DEQ is now requiring Chemours to expand the number of private wells eligible for PFAS contamination sampling to about 14,000 additional residences in New Hanover, Brunswick, Columbus and Pender counties.

Related: DEQ requires Chemours to expand PFAS well water testing

The expanded area was identified through additional data analysis conducted by the state and Chemours. Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant in Bladen County discharged PFAS, including GenX, for decades directly into the Cape Fear River, ground and air.

Wetlands definition rule

The General Assembly with a June 27, 2023, session law directed the commission to adopt a rule consistent with language in the statute that read “Wetlands classified as waters of the State are restricted to waters of the United States as defined by” federal regulations.

Sue Homewood with the Division of Water Resources explained Thursday to the commission that, “We had the session law in 2023, the EMC requested that we move forward with this rule amendment, even though we were implementing the rule and are implementing the session law already.”

Around the same time this session law was drafted and making its way through the state legislature, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of an Idaho couple, the Sacketts, who sued the Environmental Protection Agency for putting a stop on work to backfill what the federal agency argued was wetlands.

The Sackett v. EPA decision on May 25, 2023, changed the definition of “waters of the United States,” which are navigable waters protected under the Clean Water Act. The definition now excludes noncontiguous wetlands, or those not connected to navigable waters. The EPA aligned its definition with the court case effective Sept. 8, 2023.

When the North Carolina General Assembly put the 2023 session law through that summer, commissioners worked with staff on how best to proceed. The matter was on pause between April 2024 to January of this year, when the water quality committee approved the language to go to the full commission. Members approved in March the proposed text rule and moving ahead to public comment, which was open April 15 to June 30. A public hearing was held June 26.

Homewood said 134 written comments were submitted and 13 oral comments were presented at the hearing, which are in summarized in the hearing officer’s report.

Of all the comments, she continued, only one was in favor of the rule amendment.

“In general, the comments opposed to the rule amendment were concerned about loss of wetland protection in North Carolina,” Homewood said, such as what the rule means for flooding, resiliency and wildlife habitat.

The public also commented that the state is investing in mitigation and flood resiliency that these wetlands could help provide, and there were some comments stating that the General Assembly should not dictate a rule making body on how to implement rules.

The wetlands definition rule was approved with 10 voting for the rule and commissioners Smith, Gibson, Dr. Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, Dr. Ann Chelminski and Dr. Ilona Jaspers voting against. In a separate vote, the hearing officer’s report passed 13-1, with Orme-Zavaleta voting against no and Gibson abstaining.

Homewood said the next step is to submit the rule to the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings, then to General Assembly, which would be the 2026 session. After that, it needs to be approved by the EPA, because this definition is part of the state’s water quality standards.

Karen Higgins with the water planning section said that the EPA has 60 days to approve, 90 days to disapprove, or nothing happens if they take longer. If the EPA disapproves of the standards change, the agency sends it back to the state.

Solomon said he had been asked what could be done about the rule and the bottom line is “our rules have got to be consistent with state laws. And so while this is a little unusual to say, they did their action, we have to clean up our rules now to make sure the definitions fit.”

He continued by pointing out that the rulemaking process “is more or less procedural” and there are concerns but the commission has to comply with the state laws.

Baumgartner reiterated that it was a statutory directive from the General Assembly and the commission is following the Administrative Procedures Act by making this rule change, which Commissioner Kevin Tweedy acknowledged, but said he’s hoping that the state can disconnect from the federal definition.

“North Carolina has unique resources that I think a lot of people, obviously, from the comments, agree it should be protected. I think we can do that protection in a smart way that that takes into account everybody’s concerns and issues with wetlands. But I think connecting it to the (federal definition) and keeping it that way is just not a good long-term policy,” Tweedy said.

Smith, a longtime attorney, called this “bad policy” and part of the reason is that nothing at the federal level is about which or whether these wetlands are important for ecological or other purposes.

“The only issue at the federal level is federal jurisdiction, and that’s driven by the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, and it’s driven by the language of the Clean Water Act,” Smith said. “It’s a jurisdictional issue at the federal level. It has nothing to do with assessment of the value of these wetlands.”

Managing the wetlands is primarily a state responsibility, which is why “it’s a mistake to tie state decisions about the value and protection of wetlands to a federal jurisdictional issue,” Smith said.

Aside from bad policy, she said, it’s bad legislative practice, because there’s a section in the session law that causes the entire session law language to sunset as soon as this rule is adopted.

“What the legislature did not change,” Smith said, is the existing definition of waters of the state in a statute, which will continue to be in effect after the session law expires.

She reiterated a point Solomon made that the commission’s rules cannot be in conflict with state law. “But unfortunately, what the legislature has given us is a situation that will create a conflict with state law.”

Smith voted against approving the rule, saying that she understands “the realities of situation, but between the policy and the legislative process and the, in my view, misuse of the session law in this way, without clarifying a statute, makes this an easy vote against for me.”

This report has been updated to correct the area code in Chemours’ well sampling request phone number.

About 14,000 additional residences in the lower Cape Fear region have been added to the list of private drinking water wells eligible for PFAS contamination sampling.

N.C. Department of Environmental Quality announced Thursday that it is requiring Chemours to expand sampling eligibility to more areas of Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover and Pender counties.

“This expansion comes after Chemours and DEQ staff completed an extensive review of existing residential well data as part of the ongoing assessment work and continued actions taken in accordance with the 2019 consent order between DEQ, Cape Fear River Watch and Chemours,” according to a DEQ release. “Current information provided by Chemours indicates that only a portion of these residences may receive their water from wells and need to be sampled.”

Residents within the newly expanded sampling area whose primary drinking water source is a private well may request well sampling by calling Chemours at 910-678-1100 or by completing the company’s online form.

Those who call are asked to live their name, phone number, email and mailing address if prompted to leave a message. The return call may come from Parsons Environment and Infrastructure, which is the authorized third-party contractor conducting the well sampling.

Newly eligible residents who previously requested sampling will be contacted soon by the third-party contractor to arrange sampling.

DEQ’s Division of Waste Management is scheduled to host a virtual public meeting at 6 p.m. Oct. 7 to provide more details about expanded sampling and answer questions.

The webinar number is 2435 548 5932 and the password is chemours (24366878 when dialing from a phone or video system).

Residents may also join the meeting by phone at +1-415-655-0003 (US toll) or +1-904-900-2303 US toll (Jacksonville), access code 243 554 85932.

The state Environmental Management Commission is expected to vote during its September meeting on a legally mandated wetlands definition rule change and on groundwater quality standards for three industrial chemical substances discharged into the environment.

The commission’s committees are to scheduled to meet the afternoon of Sept. 10 and the full commission is to meet at 9 a.m. Sept. 11, both in the Archdale Building in Raleigh. The public may attend in person. To watch online, use this webinar link for the Sept. 10 committee meetings and this webinar link for the Sept. 11 full commission meeting. The password for both is NCDEQ.

The full commission is to consider adopting the revised definition of “wetlands,” which NCDEQ began applying when a 2023 law became effective on June 27, 2023. The law added to the definition the text, “Wetlands classified as waters of the State are restricted to waters of the United States,” to align the state with the federal definition that recognizes wetlands only as those that are connected to navigable waters.

The law dictated that the revision be immediately implemented and directed the commission to adopt a rule consistent with the revised definition. Division of Water Resources staff presented the proposed rule change in March and then proceeded to public comment and hearing. The proposed rules were published in the North Carolina Register and on the NCDEQ website on May 1, 2025, and a public hearing was held on June 26. The public comment period closed on June 30, according to agenda documents.

The three PFAS that the commission are to vote on for groundwater quality standards are PFOA, PFOS and GenX.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are long-lasting chemicals known to break down very slowly over time, and are used in a variety of industrial and commercial processes as well as consumers products, according to DEQ. Because of the widespread use and persistence in the environment, many PFAS are found in the blood of people and animals, at low levels in a variety of food products, and in the environment.

Committee meetings

The water allocation committee is to meet at 1 p.m. Sept. 10 to hear an update on the North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint, which is part of a statewide flood mitigation planning process.

The groundwater and waste management committee will follow at 2:15 p.m. when they will hear a presentation on the PFAS treatment system reimbursement program.

The water quality committee at its 2:45 p.m. meeting Sept. 10 is to hear an update on PFOA, PFOS, and Gen X monitoring and minimization rules being drafted.

The committee approved a motion in November to “support the effort towards understanding the sources and levels of certain PFAS compounds in NC.”

Division of Water Resources staff were directed to develop a PFAS minimization initiative for industrial direct dischargers to surface water and all significant industrial users that discharge to publicly owned treatment works. Staff are to update the committee on their progress.

Brunswick County has rescinded its lawsuit against the contractor it hired to expand and upgrade the county’s Northwest Water Treatment Plant with a system capable of removing forever chemicals from drinking water.

The county announced Thursday that it had withdrawn its lawsuit on Aug. 25 against Oscar Renda Construction and surety Zurich American Insurance Co. and Federal Insurance Co., noting in a release “the County reserves the right to refile a lawsuit in the future.”

The release did not include an explanation behind the county’s decision, one made a month after the county terminated its contract with the Oscar Renda and filed the suit citing breach of contract and repeated construction delays.

“The surety will be on-site over the coming weeks to identify the remaining project tasks as part of the new schedule development,” according to the release. “The surety has also hired a management group to provide additional oversight of the project.”

An update to the project schedule is expected to be provided to the county “in the next few weeks, which will be shared with the community as soon as possible.”

The original $167.3 million cost of the project is not expected to change, and there are no plans to increase water rates because of the project delays, according to the county.

The plant is being installed with a low-pressure reverse osmosis, or RO, system capable of removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and 1,4-dioxane, all of which are chemicals that are being discharged by upstream industrial polluters into the Cape Fear River, a major drinking water source in the region.

Work also includes expanding the amount of water the plant can treat by an additional 12 million gallons per day. When the project is finished, the plant will have the capacity to treat more than 36 million gallons of water per day using RO.

County officials note that the county reserves the right to deduct liquidated damages because of the contractor’s delays.

“The delays do not mean that all work has stopped at the project site, but rather that key project milestones have not been met and that the overall project completion date has continued to move into the future,” the release states. “Brunswick County will continue to take all actions necessary to protect the best interests of our residents who have waited far too long for a solution to removing PFAS from our drinking water.”

Brunswick County has filed a lawsuit against the contractor the county hired to upgrade and expand its Northwest Water Treatment Plant.

The county on July 25 terminated its contract with Oscar Renda Contracting and filed suit, citing breach of contract and repeated delays on the expansion, which is to include a reverse osmosis, or RO, system capable of removing PFAS and 1,4-dioxane.

The Brunswick County Board of Commissioners on July 21 amended a contract with CDM Smith Inc. for about $1 million to continue overseeing the site while county officials search for a new contractor, Port City Daily reported.

The lawsuit follows an announcement the county made in mid-June informing residents that the initial anticipated completion of the more than $122 million project was being pushed because the contractor had repeatedly failed to meet its performance milestones.

The RO system is designed to remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and 1,4-dioxane from the plant’s water source, the Cape Fear River. Such manmade, chemical compound pollutants have for years been discharged into the river by upstream industries and municipal wastewater treatment plants.

The project also includes doubling the water treatment plant’s capacity from 24 million gallons per day to 48 million gallons per day.

Brunswick County is seeking damages that include covering costs associated with hiring a new contractor and remediating insufficient work on site, legal fees associated with the lawsuit, and liquidates damages to the tune of $5,500 a day going back to June 30, according to Port City Daily.

County spokesperson Amber Merklinger told the newspaper in a statement that the county was “actively exploring the best legal methods to find a new construction contractor to continue the project as quickly and realistically as possible.”

“Brunswick County is committed to making sure the expansion and reverse osmosis project at the Northwest Water Treatment Plant is completed exactly as planned and designed,” Merklinger stated. “This action was necessary to protect the best interests of our residents who have waited far too long for a solution to removing PFAS from our drinking water.”

A handful of coastal communities have been awarded a chunk of state funding to be used for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure improvement projects.

Gov. Josh Stein announced Wednesday an award of more than $204 million in funding for 48 projects that include addressing PFAS and other chemical compounds in drinking water, identifying and replacing lead pipes, and improving resiliency following storms.

“When you turn on the faucet in your home, you shouldn’t have to worry about whether that water is safe for your family,” Stein said in a statement. “These investments will help ensure North Carolinians have access to clean drinking water and will help keep people safe when disaster strikes.”   

The funding is being dispersed to projects across 27 counties, including four along the North Carolina coast.

In Beaufort County, the town of Aurora is receiving more than $3.06 million to replace a force main and rehabilitate a lift station and lift station wells. Belhaven has been awarded more than $4.7 million for wastewater treatment plant improvements. And, Chocowinity will receive more than $4.8 million for water treatment plant and waste discharge improvements.

River Bend in Craven County is set to get $6.3 million in drinking water state revolving funds for phase II drinking water improvements.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority in New Hanover County has been awarded $35 million to replace its southside wastewater treatment plant.

And, Carolina Water Service, Inc. will receive $5.5 million for six projects focusing on PFAS, lead service line identification and water lines across multiple counties, including Pender.

“This funding will address aging infrastructure and improve public health for communities large and small,” N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Reid Wilson said in a statement.

More than 130 applications requesting $1.57 billion in funding were reviewed by the agency’s Division of Water Infrastructure.

The projects that were selected were approved by the State Water Infrastructure Authority, an independent body responsible for awarding federal and state funding for water infrastructure projects, during its July 16 meeting.

Funds awarded this month came from the State Revolving Funds, which are funded by federal capitalization grants and revolving loan repayments and provide low-interest loans that may be partially forgiven for drinking water and wastewater projects, according to a release.

Funding rounds for Fall 2025 begin July 29 and applications are due by 5 p.m. Sept. 30. Funds for this round will come from programs to include evaluating options to address PFAS contamination, identifying and replacing lead service lines, and Viable Utility Reserve grants. 

The division is hosting in-person funding application training for the fall 2025 funding round in Clyde, Hickory, Boone, Fayetteville, Winterville, and Research Triangle Park/Durham. A virtual option will also be available as well as a recording of the training, which will be posted on the division’s training webpage.

The long-awaited reverse osmosis system designed to remove PFAS from Brunswick County Public Utilities’ drinking water supply will not be operational in the time frame originally announced.

County officials announced that, because the project contractor has repeatedly failed to meet its performance milestones, expanded capacity and the reverse osmosis, or RO, treatment system at the Northwest Water Treatment Plant will not be up and running by the start of summer, which officially begins Friday.

“We recognize that this is not the news that people wanted to hear, but it is an important and very much needed step to getting this project over the finish line,” Brunswick County Manager Steve Stone said in a news release. “This is the largest project in Brunswick County’s history, and we have to make sure it is done right. Our community has waited too long already to get a solution to removing PFAS from our water supply, and we felt this was the best step to getting our RO treatment system online as soon as possible.”

The upgraded treatment system will remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, including GenX, and 1,4-dioxane from the plant’s water source, the Cape Fear River.

The plant’s capacity is being doubled from 24 million gallons per day to 48 million gallons per day.

Work is continuing at the project site, but the completion date of that work “has continued to move into the future,” according to the release.

The county has directed the contractor and the surety to “ensure prompt completion of the work” and requested that the surety “take over the work and complete the performance” of the contract.

“Through this process, County staff, professional consultants and surety representatives will evaluate the remaining tasks in the project, develop a new completion schedule, and identify contractors as needed to finish the final tasks to ensure completion of the overall project as timely and effectively as possible,” according to the release.

The county does not have an estimated date of when it will receive a new project schedule, but anticipated receiving one “during the summer.” That schedule will be published as soon as it is available and the county will provide an update on the estimated completion of the remaining project milestones.

The delay is not expected to impact the original project cost of $167.3 million. The county plans to deduct an estimated $3.5 million in liquidated damages from that cost because of the delays. That amount may change “based on present or future factors,” according to the release.

The county does not plan to increase customer rates because of the delays.

Reprinted from our longtime collaborator, North Carolina Health News, to complement our ongoing series on federal budget and staff cuts and the dismantling of programs and services affecting life and lives here on the North Carolina coast.

People who have been struggling to clean up decades of industrial pollution in the lower Cape Fear River basin are expressing their dismay and anger at a federal delay announced Wednesday on a crackdown on so-called forever chemicals that have fouled their drinking water.  

That day, the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to extend the timeline for water utilities to reduce the maximum safe levels for human consumption for a select group of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAS.

In 2024, under the Biden Administration, the EPA finalized the first-ever enforceable standards for six PFAS compounds: PFOA, PFOS, HFPO-DA (GenX), PFBS, PFNA and PFHxS. At that time, water utilities had until 2029 to comply with the new standards. 

A year later, the Trump Administration’s newly appointed EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the agency would uphold standards set for PFOA and PFOS — legacy PFAS that persist in the environment despite no longer being manufactured. But Zeldin also announced he would rescind and re-evaluate rules for the other four, including GenX. 

GenX is the common name for the substance produced at the Chemours Fayetteville Works plant; it was discharged into the river’s water for decades until researchers revealed their presence in 2017. 

Additionally, the new federal timeline gives utilities until 2031 to comply with the standards, extending the original 2029 deadline.

“We are on a path to uphold the agency’s nationwide standards to protect Americans from PFOA and PFOS in their water,” Zeldin said in a news release. “At the same time, we will work to provide common-sense flexibility in the form of additional time for compliance.”

While Zeldin’s statement appeared aimed at reassuring the public that the EPA is taking control of the situation, to critics, it sounded like a betrayal — signaling, in their view, a retreat from more robust protections from substances that have become known as “forever chemicals” because of their persistence in the environment.

‘Not forward-thinking’

“Overall, PFOA and PFOS are chemicals of the past, though they are still present in drinking water sources. So removing them will get a lot of others,” said N.C. State University epidemiologist Jane Hoppin in an email. “But the other four are chemicals of the future, particularly GenX, so removing these rules would not be forward-looking.”

In 2017, Hoppin headed a team of researchers and launched the GenX Exposure Study, which revealed that most of the people from the Cape Fear River Basin who participated in the research have PFAS in their blood.

There are thousands of unique PFAS in the environment, according to experts. They’re present in multiple products to help make them slippery and resistant to oils, water and solvents, including some cosmetics and apparel, microwave popcorn wrappers, dental floss, firefighting gear and some firefighting foams.

PFAS exposure is associated with a range of adverse health effects, such as increased cholesterol levels, kidney and testicular cancer, pre-eclampsia in pregnant women and decreased vaccine response in children, among other conditions.

“The EPA is caving to chemical industry lobbyists and pressure by the water utilities, and in doing so, it’s sentencing millions of Americans to drink contaminated water for years to come,” said Environmental Working Group President Ken Cook in a statement.

Cook’s organization has worked throughout the country to document environmental problems.

“The cost of PFAS pollution will fall on ordinary people, who will pay in the form of polluted water and more sickness, more suffering and more deaths from PFAS-related diseases,” he said. 

Kelly Moser, senior attorney and leader of the Water Program at the Southern Environmental Law Center, echoed this sentiment. “When this administration talks about deregulation, this is what they mean — allowing toxic chemicals in drinking water at the request of polluters,” she said in a release.

Living with PFAS

It has been a tumultuous eight years for thousands of North Carolinians living in the Cape Fear River Basin since the presence of  the forever chemicals was first announced in 2017. Among those affected are residents whose drinking water wells are contaminated, likely because of PFAS that were incinerated at the Fayetteville Works plant and drifted far and wide in emissions from the factory. 

Despite a 2019 consent order — established among Chemours, Cape Fear River Watch and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality — aimed at assisting residents with PFAS-contaminated wells, living with PFAS is a daunting challenge.

Jamie White, administrator of the Facebook group “Grays Creek Residents United Against PFAS in our Wells and Rivers,” which works to raise awareness about PFAS contamination, expressed the group’s frustration after the EPA’s latest announcement.

“Well, it shocked us all, first off — and when I say all I speak for the group,” White said during a call with NC Health News. “Number one, we have worked for eight years to get the limits lowered, to bring awareness to everybody, because our wells are contaminated.”

“(The EPA) extended the public water facilities another two years (before) having to have the chemicals cleaned out of their water systems — another two years of contaminating the public,” she said.

Jane Jacobs (EagleHeart), a tribal leader of the Tuscarora Nation, an Indigenous community with many members in the Cape Fear River Basin, criticized the lack of action to protect vulnerable communities.

“My children, my grandchildren, need to be protected from all of the poison, not some of the poison,” Jacobs said. “If somebody was pointing a gun at my kid right now, am I going to protect him from one bullet or all of the bullets?”

Jacobs also highlighted the disproportionate impact on her community. 

“Being a bipoc community, we face a lot more environmental hardships than most people do,” she stated. “We have to drink the tap water. We don’t have money for filters, so for the people in my community, this affects us 10 times worse because we don’t have the money to protect ourselves.”

Looking ahead

While many expressed disappointment over the EPA’s decision, the environmental community remains hopeful that more stringent rules could eventually prevail at the state level — though it may take time. 

One significant obstacle is the Environmental Management Commission, which is responsible for developing regulations to safeguard, preserve and improve the state’s air and water resources. Since 2022, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality has been working with the commission to establish regulations for PFAS and 1,4 dioxane — a cancer-causing pollutant that’s also been found to be widely discharged by industrial companies and ultimately flow into the Cape Fear River.

However, a series of delays have stalled progress, preventing the process from advancing to the public comment period — the next step toward establishing maximum contaminant levels for PFAS at the state level.

The most recent Environmental Management Commission meeting, on May 7, ended in another delay after the Office of State Budget and Management raised concerns about the proposal’s fiscal analysis.

Possible remedies

Despite the setbacks, several people at the meeting expressed relief, including Haw Riverkeeper Emily Sutton.

“There’s not actually any checks or enforcement to make sure that the plans that are drafted are effective, and so this (plan) doesn’t do anything for our downstream community members,” Sutton said. 

She also criticized the fiscal analysis requested by the Office of State Budget and Management.

“The fiscal analysis that they’ve asked for also is flawed. It doesn’t include information about the financial impacts for downstream communities who are bearing the burden of this pollution. (The fiscal analysis) is looking at how much this is going to cost polluting industries. That’s not our concern. Our concern is the health of our community members.”

Southern Environmental Law Center’s Moser agrees that the commission’s proposal falls short of the outcome environmental groups demand. 

“The EMC is siding with polluters and considering adopting rules that were written by polluters,” Moser said. “That could allow industrial facilities to release PFAs indefinitely into North Carolina’s drinking water sources and even increase the toxic water pollution that they are putting into our waterways.”

Sutton and Moser and their colleagues are closely monitoring Senate Bill S666 — the Water Safety Act — proposed by North Carolina Senate Majority Leader Michael Lee, R-New Hanover. If passed, the bill would deliver the state-level regulatory action environmentalists are pushing for.

“ (The proposed bill) directs the EMC to set regulatory limits on PFAs, and that is what our hope is,” Sutton said. “We don’t trust that this commission will hold polluters accountable, and unfortunately, the Department of Environmental Quality has to abide by what they are directed by the EMC.”

Moser pointed out that a potential remedy exists to address the water pollution problem: “It’s more important than ever that states like North Carolina, EPA and wastewater treatment plants use their current authority under the Clean Water Act to require that industry stops their pollution at the source before discharging it into our waterways.” 

The Environmental Management Commission is scheduled to meet again in July, while the EPA is expected to update federal PFAS standards by late 2025, with finalization anticipated by spring 2026. Amid these ongoing challenges, Jacobs offered a rallying cry to fellow environmentalists: “We just need to keep pushing. We need to keep fighting.”

Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent, notably known as a leader in the region’s fight against “forever chemicals,” announced she is leaving her post next week.

“To my colleagues and community members in ‘PFAS land’ – I am not giving up and I’ll be in touch,” Sargent said in an email Wednesday night announcing her upcoming departure.

Sargent’s last day as the nonprofit environmental organization’s executive director is May 23. She is taking on a new role as N.C. Audubon’s director of community building beginning May 27.

“Cape Fear River Watch remains steady and strong, and a transition is in-the-works, guided by your trusted CFRW leadership, and I’ll be here to help,” Sargent said. “The decision did not come easily or hastily for me. This is bittersweet as heck.”

During her role as executive director, Sargent became a prominent voice against the releases of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, by industries into the environment, including the Cape Fear River. She has recounted the story of her brother, who died in December 2019 following a battle with brain cancer.

Sargent has publicly questioned whether his exposure to PFAS for decades as a Chicago firefighter and former U.S. Marine caused his cancer.

Sargent explained in her email that her role with Audubon “will allow me the privilege of focusing most of my time on the aspect of environmental protection that my time with CFRW has taught me is the most meaningful to me – working with the community.”

“While working myself ragged does come with a badge of honor to some extent, I have come to realize that I want more time for peace with loved ones in this short life of ours.  I am hoping this shift brings that peace, while still fulfilling me through a new purpose in protecting our environment – for the birds!,” she said.

Sargent joined the organization’s advocacy committee some 12 years ago and, in 2019, was named its executive director.

“I will remain in town and will remain faithfully involved and supportive of CFRW,” she said. “I’ll see y’all around!”

Part of a series about the effects federal budget and staff cuts and the cancellations of programs and services are having in coastal North Carolina.

This story has been updated to include comments from EMC Chair JD Solomon

Federal and state efforts to limit the public’s exposure to “forever chemicals” through drinking water sources seemed to be gaining traction just a year ago.

In a historic move in April 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency set limits on six per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, including PFOA, PFOS and HFPO-DA, most commonly referred to as GenX.

About three months after the federal drinking water rules were adopted, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources introduced proposed groundwater and surface water standards on eight PFAS.

Related: Zeldin says PFAS limits may get tougher, downplays layoffs

But, as of this week, the Trump administration says it intends to rescind and reexamine rules on four PFAS, including GenX, and extend the deadline for public water utilities to comply with rules on PFOA and PFOS by two years.

PFAS are a group of more than 14,000 chemicals used in everyday consumer products including food containers, stain-resistant carpet and water-repellant gear. These man-made chemical compounds are often referred to as “forever chemicals” because they are persistent in the environment and have been found to accumulate in people and animals. Exposure to these substances has been linked to weakened immune function, reproductive and developmental issues and increased risk of some cancers.

The EPA’s announcement Wednesday of its plans to scale back PFAS limits comes on the heels of a recent decision by members of the state-appointed commission responsible for adopting rules that protect, preserve and enhance air and water resources to again defer moving forward monitoring and minimization discharge plans for PFAS and 1,4-dioxane into the state’s surface waters.

Critics of those proposed plans argue the rules, as written, lack any real subsistence in reducing the releases of chemical compounds into the state’s waterways.

And in a new year with a new administration at the helm of the federal government, the impetus for regulation may turn up the pressure on state governments to limit discharges of “forever chemicals” into drinking water sources.

State Division of Water Resources officials were heading in that direction in July 2024 when they presented water quality standards for eight PFAS to committees of the N.C. Environmental Management Commission.

The standards would be used to limit permitted releases of PFAS into groundwater and surface waters, set health thresholds for providing alternative water supplies to residents on private wells whose drinking water exceeds contamination limits, and establish goals for cleaning contamination.

The commission’s groundwater and waste management committee agreed to recommend groundwater health standards for only three PFAS, including PFOA, PFOS and GenX. That proposal went to public comment later in the year.

The commission’s water quality committee deferred a motion to send the surface water rule package on all eight PFAS to the full commission and, since its July 2024 meeting, has also pared down its focus on PFAS to PFOA, PFOS and GenX.

Based on that committee’s vote earlier this month, the commission isn’t expected to see a proposed draft rule on PFAS or 1,4-dioxane earlier than its July meeting.

In an emailing responding to questions from Coastal Review on Thursday morning, EMC Chair JD Solomon said the commission anticipates receiving the hearing officer’s report on the proposed groundwater rules at that same meeting.

Draft rule ‘doesn’t have sufficient teeth’

The current proposed rules for surface water bear little semblance to those the Division of Water Resources presented last July.

The set of rule drafts presented to the water quality committee in March were largely written from input provided by the North Carolina Water Quality Association, a statewide organization that represents public water, sewer, and stormwater utilities.

The water quality standards included in the initial draft rules the division created last year have since been deleted. Without those standards, the state lacks ability to enforce limits on dischargers of PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, critics say.

One of those critics of the current proposed draft rules is Environmental Management Commissioner Robin Smith.

“I think that consistently there has been a concern that, in the absence of a water quality standard, even a minimization plan isn’t enforceable,” Smith told Coastal Review in a telephone interview earlier this week.

Following last week’s commission meeting, Smith raised several concerns in an email that she sent to fellow commissioners.

“My concern is that (the current draft rule) doesn’t have sufficient teeth,” she said. “If you read through the full draft, there’s just nothing there other than the minimization contents, like a table of contents for what the minimization plan would have to be. There are no standards for determining whether what a system submits in their plan is adequate or not.”

In his email, Solomon explained that the regulatory impact analysis, or RIA, which is an evaluation of the potential costs and benefits associated with a proposed regulation, did not sufficiently identify cost-benefits associated with the proposed rules.

Last September, the water quality committee voted to move forward with a proposed monitoring and minimization plan and “continue discussions with federal agencies to make sure the benefits portion of the numeric standard were realistic,” Solomon said.

“The monitoring and minimization approach is seen as a proactive measure by EPA because it addresses potential contamination before it gets into our human and natural systems communities,” he wrote. “Allowing potential contamination into our public water bodies and public sewer systems is also much more costly to clean up.”

But the proposed monitoring and minimization plan would fail to enforce consequences for industries if they increase their pollution, said Southern Environmental Law Center Attorney Hannah Nelson.

“DEQ worked really hard to put together a comprehensive set of water quality standards that would have required polluters to reduce their pollution at the source and they spent a lot of time putting those rules together,” she said. “We don’t see that same thing happening with this set of rules. Instead, the analysis supporting this rule making completely ignored impact to downstream drinking water utilities. They don’t address that because, if they did, we would see that this rule is all about protecting industry and it’s not about protecting the people of North Carolina.”

In an April 17 letter to state environmental officials, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s executive director admonished the revised draft rule for 1,4-dioxane.

“After months of research, our consultants determined, as a matter of law, that there is no legal basis by which to create mandatory, legally enforceable 1,4-dioxane minimization requirements without supporting water quality standards for surface waters,” wrote the utility’s Kenneth Waldroup in the letter addressed to Solomon and Division of Water Resources Director Richard Rogers.

“Given that the EMC determined many years ago that 1,4-dixoane adversely impacts the protected use of groundwater, we respectfully point out that the EMC neglects its statutory duty to protect surface waters from the same pollutant. Pollution mitigation plans that have no required or enforceable reduction targets will not garner any tangible results but instead be no more than an action in name only providing empty promises to the people of North Carolina,” the letter states.

There are six known 1,4-dioxane polluters upstream of the drinking water supply for Sanford, Fayetteville, Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties, and municipalities that buy drinking water from Sanford.

Waldroup has said that the utility will have to invest millions of dollars to remove 1,4-dioxane, a likely carcinogen, from its raw drinking water source: the Cape Fear River.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority has already spent millions in upgrades and ongoing treatment of PFAS discharged into the Cape Fear River from, among other upstream polluters, Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant.

GenX is specific to the Bladen County facility, which is roughly 74 miles upstream of Wilmington.

Since news broke nearly eight years ago that Chemours had knowingly discharged PFAS directly into the river, air and groundwater for decades, the company has spent millions to reduce its PFAS emissions to comply with a 2019 consent order between the company, DEQ and Cape Fear River Watch.

The Cape Fear utility and other public water utilities in the region are calling for regulations that would ultimately shift the cost of reducing PFAS and 1,4-dioxane discharges to the industries that produce those chemical compounds.

“We seek meaningful regulation that acknowledges and rewards the reductions made to date, prevents backsliding, and requires uncooperative industrial dischargers to mirror the work of dutiful municipal partners,” Waldroup wrote.

The Clean Water Act includes “anti-backsliding” provisions advocates say prohibits repealing or weakening the drinking water standard.

“Unfairly” blamed

Water quality committee members pointed the finger at Division of Water Resources staff as the reason for the latest delay in getting proposed rules out for public comment.

Smith, who is not a member of the water quality committee, took issue with that assertion, saying in her email that committee members were “unfairly blaming” division staff.

“DWR was not responsible for the fact that the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) did not approve the Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIAs) for these two sets of rules before the May EMC meeting,” she wrote.

Instead, “significant changes” to the rule drafts and the draft regulatory analyses that were presented to the committee in March “led directly to OSBM questions that delayed approval of the RIAs and remain unresolved.”

Changes to the draft rules were made at the direction of a group of commissioners, including the chair and vice chair of the water quality committee, chair of the groundwater and waste management committee, and Solomon. Solomon did not respond to an email request for comment.

During the water quality committee’s May 7 meeting, Rogers said staff had “been engaged in taking direction from a subcommittee of this committee” over the last month.

“We have taken that direction and applied it directly to the draft rules that y’all have before you today,” Rogers said.

Exactly which commissioners had been meeting with staff had not been made clear until the May 7 meeting, Smith told Coastal Review.

“It’s not necessarily inappropriate to have a subcommittee or a working group, a small group of EMC members who work on something between committee meetings, but one of my concerns about this process has been there’s never been any transparency about the fact that was going on and who was involved,” she said. “I do think we need to reach some common understanding of how we’re working on these rules, but that also clearly affects the public, and I’m also not sure we’re on a path toward making great progress in July, depending on how willing some of these water quality committee members are to making changes to satisfy OSBM.”

Solomon said that DEQ staff “asked for a more collaborative approach” with the commission for the monitoring and minimization draft rule.

“Coordination and communication with DEQ divisions is charged to the chair and vice-chair of the relevant EMC committee, and in this case the WQC chair and vice chair interacted with DWR to move this draft item onto the committee agenda for debate and discussion,” he said. “No action has been taken on the draft monitoring and minimization rule, or the RIA, by the WQC or the EMC. Based on OSBM’s response to the draft RIA, the benefits aspect of the draft rule is the primary issue. My direction as EMC chair is to bring the updated draft documents before the committee in July.”

Part of a series about the effects federal budget and staff cuts and the cancellations of programs and services are having in coastal North Carolina.

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency, speaking Wednesday during a Senate budget hearing in Washington, D.C., dismissed reports that the agency was weakening standards on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also called “forever chemicals.”

During questioning by the chair and ranking member, respectively, Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin told the Senate Appropriations Committee that news reports about the EPA weakening PFAS were inaccurate and that the standards could instead get tougher. Zeldin said expected job cuts at the agency would not impact its work.

The senators said they were concerned about the EPA’s reductions in force, or RIFs, and its ability to meet commitments made earlier this year about tackling the compounds in soils and waters.

Related: Proposed state rules on discharges defanged as EPA retreats

Murkowski noted that the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees EPA funding, frequently discusses PFAS.

“Last month, you announced that EPA will, quote, ‘tackle PFAS from all of EPA’s program offices, advancing research and testing, stopping PFAS from getting into drinking water systems, holding polluters accountable and providing certainty for passive receivers. You said this was just the beginning of the work that EPA is going to do to tackle PFAs,” she said.

She asked Zeldin whether the EPA’s operating plan budget requests “actually reflect this kind of full-forward push on PFAS and whether it includes the $10 billion that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding provided to take on PFAS contamination.”

Zeldin replied that the EPA was “actually adding people” to its Office of Water, which he said does much of the agency’s work on PFAS. But Murkowski pressed further on the announced RIFs deferred resignations and how they would affect EPA’s ability to execute the plan.

“When I was in Congress, I was a member of the PFAS Task Force. I had voted for the PFAS Action Act. When I was a member of the House, I represented the district that had all sorts of different PFAS contamination issues,” said Zeldin.

Merkley did not appear swayed. He said rough counts showed EPA had lost about 400 people, who were fired within their first year, 560 in the first round of deferred resignations, 180  in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility jobs who were RIF’ed. Another 1,129 exited via second round of deferred resignations, with 1,800 of opt-ins.

“Now we’re up to almost 3,000,” Merkley said. “Office of R and D, it’s rumored that would reduce to 500 positions, which would be a loss of 1,300 additional — now we’re at 4,300. I’ll just point out that for two decades, the level of employment at EPA was about 17,000. Right now, it’s about 14,000, so subtracting the numbers I just shared, we’re talking about more than 4,000 reduction from that.”

He said cutting further to the expected number of 10,000 employees “raises doubts” the agency can meet its own goals.

“It sounds like it’s at odds with your commitment to tackling PFAS and I’m concerned about the numbers,” Merkley said to Zeldin.

Zeldin responded that it was apparent that the question was in response to a news story.

“It might not come as a shock to you, but sometimes the news says stuff that’s not accurate,” Zeldin said. “That is not what the agency announced. As it relates to PFOA and PFAS, you said that we were weakening the standards, and that’s actually the opposite of what the agency actually announced.”

Zeldin said “there was an issue” pertaining to four compounds, “and that’s something that we are going to be going through a process, but that doesn’t mean that the that it gets weaker. The (maximum concentration) might end up getting lower, not higher.”

Merkley entered for the record the Washington Post story with the headline: “EPA plans to weaken rule curbing forever chemicals in drinking water.”

Zeldin said he would “encourage the committee to look at the actual announcement from EPA, as opposed to the Washington Post.”

North Carolinians whose raw drinking water sources are contaminated with chemical compounds will have to wait at least another two months before proposed rules establishing monitoring requirements for dischargers go out for public comment.

The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission’s Water Quality Committee unanimously voted earlier this week to wait to present to the full commission draft rules for monitoring and minimizing discharges of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and 1,4-dioxane into the state’s surface waters.

Committee members said Wednesday that while they had hoped to present the draft rules to the commission this month, the N.C. Office of State Budget and Management, or OSBM, needs more time to review and approve regulatory impact analyses of those proposed rules. A regulatory impact analysis, or RIA, is an evaluation of the potential costs and benefits associated with a proposed regulation.

“Only yesterday morning did the department receive comments from OSBM on PFAS and didn’t receive anything yet on 1,4,” Committee Chair Steve Keen said Wednesday afternoon. “Though this was launched to the public through the (Department of Environmental Quality) website two weeks ago, nothing from OSBM until yesterday.”

Committee Vice Chair Michael Ellison alluded to staffing issues at DEQ as one possible reason for the lag in the proposed rules being ready.

“We have heard that some of the economic analysis required for an RIA has been impeded because the department lack sufficient staff trained in economics and that there has been an economist on maternity leave, all of which is fine and wonderful, but this has been going on for over a year,” Ellison said.

Ellison suggested the department turn to universities in the state for help.

“We have had presentation after presentation about the near ubiquitous nature of PFAS in our surface waters statewide and we know they’re there, but we really don’t know all the places that they’re coming from other than Chemours, and we don’t know what tools are available,” he said. “And this draft rule was a step, a critical step, toward this committee, and ultimately the full commission, developing a rule to protect the health and safety and environment of North Carolina and I would hope that the department takes this continuation and makes good use of the time before our next meeting and can get the RIA approved.”

The draft rule for monitoring and minimalizing PFAS targets three chemical compounds: PFOS, PFOA, which are classified as likely carcinogens, and GenX, a compound specific to Chemours Fayetteville Works plant in Bladen County.

The chemical manufacturing facility knowingly emitted GenX and a host of other PFAS into the environment, including the Cape Fear River, the ground and air for decades.

But it is hardly the only industrial polluter discharging such chemical compounds into the environment in North Carolina.

Hundreds of industries in the state pay wastewater treatment plants to take their industrial waste. Those treatment plants do not remove PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, which the Environmental Protection Agency also classifies as a likely carcinogen, before discharging their effluent into the environment, including waterways that are the raw drinking water sources for hundreds of thousands of residents.

Downstream drinking water utilities were notified one week ago that elevated levels of 1,4-dixoane had been discharged from the Asheboro Wastewater Treatment Plant into Hasketts Creek, which drains into the Deep River in the Cape Fear River Basin.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, Brunswick County, Fayetteville Public Works Commission and the city of Sandford were notified May 3 that the samples the plant collected April 25 from discharge detected a concentration of 826 parts per billion or ppb, according to a DEQ release. The state Division of Water Resources collected a sample that same day with results detecting a concentration of 730 ppb.

“DEQ, using EPA toxicity calculations for lifetime exposure, has determined that the average monthly 1,4-dioxane concentration protective of downstream water supplies is about 22 ppb for the Asheboro discharge,” the release states.

There is growing public outcry among residents, local governments and water utilities downstream of industrial polluters calling for state regulations to stop discharges at the source.

Critics of the proposed rules argue they do not require industries to reduce their PFAS discharges.

During the Water Quality Committee meeting, Keen said the initial game plan was “to create a narrative” on how the state can identify dischargers, what those dischargers are doing, and how they’re doing it, “and minimize it, if not get rid of it.”

“But the foundation was to start by monitoring and minimizing it,” he said. “That was the motion by this committee and that’s where we began officially. We want to get the right numbers for all of the river basins. We want to know what those are. Now, how do we do it? We have to go through OSBM. We have to get the regulatory impact analysis that has the fiscal note and a lot of things tied to it that’s going to give us answers.”

DEQ’s Division of Water Resources Director Richard Rogers reiterated that staff was under a tight deadline get the rules drafted.

“We will continue to work and hope we can continue to work cooperatively with the committee in this process,” he said.

In comments made early in the full commission’s Thursday meeting, Chair JD Solomon explained to the board that the draft rules were not ready to be put to a vote to go out for public comment because of the RIA.

“Regardless of what did last year or what we’re doing this year, we have to get the cost benefit right,” he said. “I will say everybody did work on it. It is what it is and we just have to resolve to come back in July with the fiscal notes in place and have those debates and whatnot.”

The full commission’s next scheduled meeting is July 10. Committees meet one day prior to the commission.

In an update to the Groundwater and Waste Management Committee on Wednesday morning, DEQ Environmental Program Analyst Jared Wilson said that more than 9,000 homes are expected to be added to those eligible for private water well testing for PFAS.

Well testing has expanded into 10 counties in the vicinity and downstream of Chemours’ plant.

“To date we have not found the edge of contamination,” Wilson said.

State Division of Waste Management Director Michael Scott told committee members that decades of air emissions of PFAS from the Chemours plant infiltrated the ground and migrated to private drinking water wells more than 30 miles away.

“How many plumes do you have in North Carolina that are 35 miles wide?” Solomon asked.

“One,” Scott answered.

Cape Fear River Watch is inviting the region to use the power of the pen to express their passion for clean water to state rulemakers.

The organization’s “Postcards Against PFAS” is set from 5:30-8 p.m. Tuesday at Waterline Brewing, 721 Surry St., Wilmington.

Those who attend will have the opportunity to write postcards and emails to the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission, or EMC, and Sen. Michael Lee, R-New Hanover.

The EMC’s water quality committee is to consider at its meeting in Raleigh on Wednesday whether to send to the full commission a proposed rule to establish monitoring and minimization requirements for dischargers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The full commission, whose role is to protect, preserve and enhance the state’s water and air resources, is scheduled to meet the following day.

Related: Committee to consider draft plans for 3 PFAS, 1,4-dioxane

Three PFAS – PFOA, PFOS and GenX – are anticipated to be included in the draft rule. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 12,000 PFAS, which are chemical compounds used in the manufacturing of a host of consumer goods, exist.

A draft rule presented to the EMC’s Water Quality Committee last March was largely crafted from input provided by the North Carolina Water Quality Association, whose members are from public water, sewer and stormwater utilities.

There are hundreds of industries in North Carolina that pay wastewater treatment plants to take their industrial waste. Those treatments plants do not remove PFAS.

Cape Fear River Watch is asking participants at next week’s event to urge Lee to muster his fellow legislators to pass three PFAS-related bills that call for reductions in PFAS discharges, studies associated with PFAS contamination, and prohibiting firefighting foams containing PFAS for firefighter training or testing. Those include House bill’s 569 and 570, and Senate bill 666.

An area branch of the NAACP has joined the fight to keep Chemours and its predecessor company DuPont from shielding thousands of pages of documents from the public eye.

The Southern Coalition for Social Justice on Tuesday filed a motion on behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People New Hanover County Branch objecting to the chemical manufacturers’ attempt to keep the documents under court seal.

“The people of New Hanover County have been kept in the dark for too long,” NAACP New Hanover County Branch President LeRon T. Montgomery said in a release. “We have a right to know what dangers have been allowed into our water and our lives. Our fight is about protecting our community’s health today and for generations to come, and that starts with transparency.” 

The motion comes on the heels of one filed earlier this month by the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is also seeking to intervene in the case brought against Chemours and DuPont as those companies aim to keep documents under seal. That motion has was filed on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, and the Environmental Justice Community Action Network.

Related: Groups move for disclosure of Chemours’ sealed documents

It’s a case that goes back to October 2017, when Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, Brunswick County, Lower Cape Fear Water & Sewer Authority and Wrightsville Beach sued to companies to recover costs and damages associated with Fayetteville Works’ plant’s discharges of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, into the Cape Fear River.

For decades, the plant discharged a host of the chemical compounds into Cape Fear River, which is the drinking water supply for tens of thousands of residents in the region.

That includes all 430 members of the NAACP New Hanover County Branch, according to a release.

“Our communities have a right to see the information that Chemours and DuPont want to keep hidden,” Anne Harvey, chief counsel for environmental justice at the coalition, said in the release. “For too long, families in Wilmington and New Hanover County have carried the burden of corporate pollution without knowing the full truth. We’re fighting to make sure they get the information they need and deserve.” 

In February, attorneys for Chemours and DuPont requested the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina keep from public view what they argue are mostly internal communications between company employees discussing chemical production that is “competitively sensitive.”

In its motion to intervene, New Hanover NAACP argues that the documents in question are protected by the first amendment, stating, in part, “There is no question that there has been widespread PFAS contamination of the Cape Fear River Basin. Ongoing testing continues to find an expanding field of affected drinking supply wells, but the full scope of the contamination is as yet unknown. At the very least, the public has a right to know what the Companies know about the harm their communities are suffering.”

“The public has a right to the information to enable them to make informed decisions about their homes, drinking water use, and health care,” the motion continues. “That information is particularly essential in light of the Companies’ plans to expand operations at the Fayetteville Works facility.”

The Environmental Management Commission’s water quality committee is to consider sending to the full commission proposed rules to manage 1,4-dioxane, and three types of PFAS during its 1:30 p.m. May 7 meeting in Raleigh.

The full commission is to meet at 9 a.m. May 8 and is to consider proposed amendments to Tar-Pamlico wastewater discharge requirements, proceeding to public comment on air curtain incinerator draft rule changes, and a few rules going through the periodic review process.

The public can attend any of the meetings in person, all in the Archdale building, or listen in by computer or phone. Directions on how to join the meeting virtually, agendas and supporting documents are available on the commission website. 

The water quality committee is to consider draft rules on monitoring and minimizing programs for PFOS, PFOA and GenX, which are types of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and draft rules for 1,4-dioxane, all human-made chemicals that are likely carcinogens or associated with health issues.

The water allocation committee meeting at 9 a.m. May 7, and the following air quality committee meeting at 10:15 a.m. will both focus on informational items and rules in different stages of the periodic review process.

During the groundwater and waste management committee’s 11:30 a.m. May 7 meeting, commissioners are expected to hear updates on a landfill PFAS sampling initiative, and the expanded private drinking water well sampling for PFAS under the 2019 Chemours consent order.

The Environmental Management Commission oversees and adopts rules for several divisions of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, including the Divisions of Air Quality, Land Resources, Waste Management and Water Resources. 

The chemical manufacturing company that has publicly touted its products, business strategies and chemistries in ad campaigns aimed at polishing its image will further harm North Carolinians if it is successful in keeping thousands of pages of documents sealed in court, environmental organizations argue.

The Southern Environmental Law Center on Monday filed a court motion to intervene in a case brought against Chemours and its predecessor company DuPont, attorneys for which have asked the court to keep up to 21,000 pages of documents under seal.

Those documents, SELC argues in its motion, “will help communities understand the harm the facility has caused, and will continue to cause, to their own health, their property values, and even the lives of future generations.”

The motion was filed on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, and the Environmental Justice Community Action Network in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

In February, attorneys for Chemours and DuPont requested the court keep from public view what they say are mostly internal communications between company employees about “non-public facts” that pertain, in part, to chemical production and is therefore “competitively sensitive.”

An attorney with Brooks Pierce Law Firm, which represents public utilities and local governments downstream of Chemours’ Bladen County plant, told Coastal Review last month that many of the documents in question are already on public record.

Brooks Pierce was expected on Monday to respond to the companies’ motion to keep the documents under seal. A lawyer with the firm did not respond to a request for comment by the time of this publication.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, Brunswick County, Lower Cape Fear Water & Sewer Authority and Wrightsville Beach in October 2017 sued the companies to recover costs and damages associated with Fayetteville Works’ plant’s discharges of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, for decades into the Cape Fear River, the drinking water supply for tens of thousands of residents in the region.

PFAS are a group of more than 14,000 chemicals used in everyday consumer products including food containers, stain-resistant carpet and water-repellant gear. These human-made chemical compounds are persistent in the environment and have been found to accumulate in people and animals. Exposure to these substances has been linked to weakened immune function, reproductive and developmental issues and increased risk of some cancers.

“After intentionally hiding their toxic PFAS pollution for decades, Chemours and DuPont now want to conceal essential information that directly affects the lives of half-a-million people,” SELC Senior Attorney Jean Zhuang said in a release Monday. “And Chemours has the audacity to try to hide thousands of pages of information as the company plans to expand its PFAS manufacturing operations. After defiling these communities’ drinking water, air, soil and food for years, Chemours has no right to hide information about its toxic pollution yet ask the public to trust that it won’t harm North Carolina families again.”

In 2022, five years after the public first learned that Chemours had been knowingly discharging PFAS directly into the Cape Fear River for decades, the company announced plans to expand its monomers and Nafion production facilities at the Fayetteville Works plant.

As part of a 2019 consent order with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and Cape Fear River Watch, Chemours has taken steps to reduce its emissions of PFAS into the Cape Fear, the ground and the air. That agreement also deems the company responsible for overseeing the testing of thousands of private water wells in the region and providing a means of uncontaminated drinking water to households with private wells that contain elevated levels of PFAS.

But the brunt of costs associated with removing PFAS from raw water sources ultimately falls on the downstream public utilities that provide drinking water to thousands of customers in the region, including Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties.

“The fact that Chemours and DuPont are trying to hide from the public eye 20,000 pages of documents about their companies’ facility and its pollution is almost comically transparent, if it weren’t so dangerous and sinister; and this attempt, in and of itself, should be considered profound proof that this information needs to see the light of day, especially considering Chemours is actively seeking to expand PFAS production at the site,” Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent said in an email.

Coastal Federation Executive Director Braxton Davis said the public, “which has suffered the effects of this pollution, has a right to review documents that may shed more light on the scope and scale of contamination and the company’s response.”

In its motion to intervene, the SELC lists several categories of documents Chemours and DuPont want to keep under seal, including research into toxicological data, communications about product safety and toxicity studies, environmental assessment and toxicology research, and a list of chemical compounds associated with the Bladen County plant.

“The companies’ own motion admits that the documents are littered with information on Chemours’ and DuPont’s PFAS pollution, sampling data, air and wastewater treatment options, toxicology and health impacts associated with PFAS, environmental and human health concerns, and the public’s exposure to their toxic chemicals,” the motion states. “These and other documents are necessary for the public to understand the impacts to their own health and property values and the potential for subsequent harm from the companies’ past, current, and future air, water, and soil pollution.”

The motion goes on to say that the public “has access to many of the categories of information in the companies’ documents – in large part because the companies have touted their PFAS chemistries, products, and business strategies in public forums as a means of broadcasting their goodwill.”

Late last month, Clean Cape Fear posted an online petition for members of the community to sign in support of unsealing the documents. As of Monday afternoon, more than 1,700 signatures had been collected.

Second in a series

WILMINGTON – Without a state-set limit for 1,4-dioxane, a public utility that serves an estimated 200,000 people here will have to invest millions of dollars to remove the federally deemed “likely carcinogen” from its raw drinking water source.

The projected cost for Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, or CFPUA, to make additional upgrades to its Sweeney Water Treatment Plant is in the area of $17- $24 million, authority Executive Director Kenneth Waldroup said.

Annual additional costs associated with treating the chemical being discharged into the Cape Fear River upstream of the city are between $1 million and $3 million.

Such costs could be avoided if upstream polluters would reduce the amount of 1,4-dioxane from their effluent by 60-65%, Waldroup said.

But prospects that industry will voluntarily reduce discharges of the chemical are slim.

And efforts to get the state’s rule makers – both the North Carolina General Assembly and the Environmental Management Commission – to set a water quality standard for 1,4-dioxane are not making much headway. The commission is charged with adopting rules to protect the state’s air and water resources.

CFPUA will continue advocating for solutions, Waldroup said to a crowd of about 100 people Saturday.

The World Water Day event, hosted by Clean Cape Fear in partnership with St. Andrews-Covenant Presbyterian Church’s women’s ministry team, highlighted ongoing problems downstream water users face from upstream polluters.

It’s an issue that spans the country, where an estimated 6-10% of 66,000 drinking water systems throughout the country must figure out how to treat certain chemical compounds from their raw water sources.

The Cape Fear River is the drinking water source for tens of thousands of residents in the Cape Fear Region, one rocked nearly eight years ago when the public was first informed Chemours’ Fayetteville Works Facility had been discharging PFAS into the river, air and ground for decades.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that there are more than 14,000 of these chemical compounds, which are used to make a host of everyday consumer goods from food packaging to water-resistant gear.

PFAS exposure has been linked to a number of adverse health impacts to people, including thyroid disease, increased cholesterol, liver damage, and different types of cancers.

More than two years have passed since CFPUA completed a multi-million-dollar upgrade to its Sweeney plant, which included the addition of a filtration system to remove PFAS, including GenX, from its raw water source.

Today, the average CFPUA customer bill includes a $7.50 charge Waldroup referred to Saturday as the “Chemours correction surcharge,” one associated with the utility’s annual operation costs associated with the filtration system upgrade.

That upgrade entailed the installation of eight granular activated carbon filters.

The system effectively removes PFAS for which the EPA in the spring of 2024 made the move to set enforceable limits on nearly a half-dozen individual compounds in public water systems.

The cost the utility incurs each year to remove PFAS is about $4.3 million, Waldroup said. The utility’s legal fees have surpassed $10 million in its ongoing lawsuit against Chemours and parent company Dupont to pay for costs and damages related to the companies’ actions.

A trial is not expected until next year.

CFPUA monitors up to 70 types of PFAS, including GenX and other chemical compounds specific to Chemours. The utility is now looking at ultra-short chain PFAS, Waldroup said. Those are compounds with carbon chain lengths of 3 or fewer carbon atoms in sequence

The utility is able to treat “some” 1,4-dioxane from its raw water source, he said, but the activated carbon system does not remove the chemical.

He explained that there is a debate in the scientific community as to the appropriate exposure rate of 1,4-dioxane, specifically whether that rate is 35 parts per billion, or 0.35 ppb. The federal drinking water health advisory level is 0.35 ppb.

“The difference is a one in 10,000 cancer risk a 70-year lifetime exposure and a one in a million,” Waldroup said. “As the downstream water provider, we think one in a million is the right standard.”

Known polluters

In January, CFPUA and other water utilities, including Pender County Utilities, were notified by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality that a city-operated wastewater treatment plant in Randolph County discharged substantially high levels of 1,4-dixoane into a tributary of the Cape Fear River that month.

The notice came months after a state chief administrative law judge last September revoked 1,4-dioxane limits included in Asheboro’s discharge permit. DEQ appealed the judge’s decision and is awaiting a ruling.

The Southern Environmental Law Center, or SELC, on Wednesday notified Asheboro and its industrial customers, StarPet and Waste Management’s Great Oak Landfill, it plans to sue for failing to stop 1,4-dioxane from “flowing into the drinking water supplies for about 900,000 North Carolinians,” according to a release. The intended lawsuit is being filed on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch and Haw River Assembly.

“Asheboro and cities like it have the ability and responsibility to stop this illegal 1,4-dioxane pollution before it contaminates people’s drinking water,” SELC senior attorney Jean Zhuang stated in the release. “Emboldened by its fight to dismantle North Carolinian’s drinking water protections, Asheboro’s 1,4-dioxane pollution has skyrocketed in recent months. Asheboro’s industries don’t want to pay to treat their own chemical pollution, so the city is protecting their profits over the health and safety of North Carolinians downstream and making their untreated, toxic industrial waste a costly problem for communities who get their drinking water downstream.”

Asheboro discharges upstream of the drinking water supply for Sanford, Fayetteville, Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties, and municipalities that buy drinking water from Sanford, according to the release.

Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant is one of six known 1,4-dioxane upstream polluters, Waldroup said. Of those, the Alpek Polyester USA plant just upstream of Chemours is the highest source of 1,4-dixoane release into the Cape Fear River, he said.

In May, the Environmental Management Commission is expected to be presented with a draft rule to establish monitoring and minimization requirements of PFAS dischargers in the state. The proposed rule was written largely from input provided by a utility association, which has drawn backlash from one of its own members – CFPUA – and environmental groups.

Hannah Nelson, a Southern Environmental Law Center staff attorney and speaker at Saturday’s event, called the proposed rule “offensive” to residents who live downstream of industry polluters.

“This rule was written by polluters and it shows,” she said. “There is no requirement under this draft rule for polluters to reduce PFAS pollution. Polluters will use this rule to hide behind it.”

The commission has instructed DEQ to put together a similar proposed rule for 1,4-dioxane, Nelson said.

That does not prevent DEQ from requiring industries include pretreatment programs in their discharge permits and placing the burden on the polluters, she said.

And the onus of establishing rules that hold the polluter, not water utilities and their customers, may fall even more on the state under the Trump administration, which recently announced plans to dismantle the EPA’s Office of Research and Development.

The EPA’s Research Triangle Park campus is home to labs that study PFAS contamination, air pollution and industrial emissions.

North Carolina also has a group of academic researchers within the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory’s PFAS Testing Network who specifically perform PFAS-related studies in the state. The General Assembly has appropriated tens of millions of dollars for the Collaboratory.

Dr. Jeffrey Enders, a senior research scholar and research assistant professor with North Carolina State University, shared last Saturday the results of a study he conducted on PFAS in sea foam collected along the state’s southern coastal shorelines.

A majority of the 10 foam samples he studied had been 10,000 – 10 million parts per trillion of total PFAS.

People are advised to avoid contact with sea foam on area beaches.

Next in the series: Polluter asks court to keep records under seal

First in a series on legacy and emerging water supply pollutants.

RALEIGH — Addressing PFAS and other emerging compounds is a “top priority” for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Secretary Reid Wilson told the more than 300 attending the N.C. Water Resources Research Institute’s annual conference.

“We are spending a lot of time and energy” working on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, because it’s important, Wilson continued Thursday, adding the department wants to work with all stakeholders in addressing PFAS through a comprehensive approach in a systematic, organized way.

WRRI is a multi-campus program of the University of North Carolina System that provides resources, and supports junior faculty, and undergraduate and graduate students.

The 2025 conference was held March 19-20 in the McKimmon Center and featured talks about the latest research on stream restoration, water supply planning, stormwater management, water quality, groundwater dynamics, community engagement and other water-related issues.

Wilson began his remarks by thanking the room full of researchers, educators, students, nonprofit representatives, academics and others for their contribution to science.

“I’ve been in North Carolina for 22 years,” Wilson said, explaining that he and his family moved from Maryland. “My work in these last 22 years has taken me to all corners of the state, and as I travel around, it just reminds me of the importance of making sure that everybody who lives here has clean air, clean water, healthy land from which their food comes and that they can roam around on, if it’s a park or a trail.”

NCDEQ has made “great strides over the years to collaborate with the research community to better understand the state of science a range of issues,” he said, and to ensure residents are better informed and better protected.

“We can’t make good decisions without sound, solid and unbiased scientific data. If we don’t rely on science, we will make bad decisions, and people’s health will be harmed. We don’t want that. It’s that simple,” Wilson said. “We have to base our decisions on science.”

When it comes to the emerging compounds in North Carolina’s water, programs like the PFAS Testing Network Applied Research Fellowship bring together DEQ and leading scientific experts “as we work to improve our understanding of these forever chemicals and generate the data needed to protect our communities.”

There have been several rounds of cohorts each semester working with nationally recognized experts from Duke University, the UNC system and its schools.

“We’re also partnering with Duke University Medical Center to conduct cutting edge research on how PFAS breaks down in our bodies. So we are working relentlessly to learn about these chemicals, protect our environment and safeguard our public health,” Wilson said.

NCDEQ launched its PFAS action strategy in 2022 to clean up contamination, protect drinking water and to take action to limit discharges of PFAS, into air and waterways.

“Part of that is we are sampling water systems to determine the extent of PFAS contamination, and that includes not only larger water systems, but smaller ones, like schools and daycares as well. And we have just deployed a robust set of ambient monitors that sample PFAS in the air, groundwater, lakes, rivers, streams, land, everything we can do,” he said, adding they’re really trying to “determine the extent of contamination of these chemicals.”

Wilson explained that, earlier this month at the department’s direction, Chemours, the company linked to discharging PFAS into the Cape Fear River, agreed to “significantly expand testing” of private wells in a larger area around their Fayetteville Works facility. 

“In terms of infrastructure,” Wilson said the department has “significant funds available” for towns, cities, counties, and water and sewer authorities for construction and planning projects that address PFAS contamination, and other water infrastructure needs.

“This funding makes it possible to assess options, design a solution to address PFAS contamination, implement treatment and develop with necessary alternative sources of drinking water,” Wilson said.

And last month, the department announced $265 million in drinking water and wastewater infrastructure grants that included $13 million for PFAS-related projects.

“Over the recent years, we have allocated $345 million to PFAS-related water infrastructure projects,” Wilson said. These investments are important, and will help improve lives and safeguard public health.

In Gov. Stein’s budget proposal released Wednesday for the next two fiscal years, Wilson said that it “includes an additional $1.5 million and three more employees to work on PFAS issues, to expand our capacity to address this problem, which affects lots of people in North Carolina.”

Wilson said that in addition to protecting people from PFAS and other water quality issues, “another huge priority for us is helping western North Carolina clean up, recover, rebuild from Helene.”

Millions in state and federal assistance have been provided since the September 2024 storm decimated the North Carolina mountains to restore and rebuild the region. “I think we all know that this recovery will continue to take years,” Wilson said.

“I know probably everyone in this room is trying to figure out what happens next in terms of recovery and rebuilding. We really must raise our sights beyond the immediate recovery to rebuild more resiliently, because we know these storms will keep coming with increasing frequency severity,” he said.

“Obviously, planning and public engagement will be key to this process in the mountain communities as they recover and rebuild, but that’s equally true for all over the state,” Wilson said. “We have to engage the public. We have to plan for the future, and again, plan for more severe storms.”

In an interview with Coastal Review, Wilson encouraged all stakeholders to weigh in and share their thoughts with decisionmakers, whether that’s an agency like NCDEQ, or the legislature or Congress, as environmental regulations undergo changes.

“We want to hear what people think to make sure that we’re making the best possible decisions to help people be healthy,” Wilson said.

Next in the series: Ultra-short chain PFAS

A proposed rule to establish monitoring and minimization requirements for PFAS dischargers in the state was crafted largely from input provided by a utility association.

A draft of the rule was discussed last week in a meeting of the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission’s Water Quality Committee. The role of the commission is to adopt rules to protect, preserve and enhance the state’s water and air resources.

The draft will likely be presented to the committee this spring, short of any further suggestions from community and environmental groups. The draft then will go to the full commission if the committee decides to move forward.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources Director Richard Rogers told the committee during its meeting Wednesday that while the draft rule includes “some” of the input from those groups, the “full scope of their written feedback has not been integrated in the rule that you have before you today.”

“At the direction of the committee chair, staff used the PFAS monitoring and minimization framework submitted by the North Carolina Water Quality Association to develop the draft rule before the committee today,” he said. He was referring to committee chairman Steve Keen. The statewide association members are from public water, sewer, and stormwater utilities.

Rogers went on to say that he would like to consider a rule on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances discharges into surface waters that incorporates feedback from the other groups, the full engagement of which would push the division past a May deadline.

The committee instructed division staff to complete and present a draft to the rule and a regulatory impact analysis, which assesses the impacts of a proposed regulation, at its May 7 meeting.

“We need to get this thing through,” Commission Chair JD Solomon said. “We need to get it to public comment. That’s the most important thing right now.”

Community and environmental groups will then get the opportunity to submit their responses to the draft rule, he said.

The language included in the draft presented to the committee last week has already drawn the ire of environmental advocates who argue it does not require industries to reduce their PFAS discharges.

“They moved forward a rule that is worse than doing nothing and that is because it will give cover to polluters to do nothing even if DEQ tries to put protections in permits,” Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent said in an interview Thursday. “DEQ should be drafting the rule, the EMC should be there for review and obviously it should not be drafted by industry.”

The Cape Fear region became ground zero for PFAS contamination in the state after news broke in 2017 that Chemours Co.’s Fayetteville Works facility, some 70 miles upstream of Wilmington, had for decades been discharging PFAS into the Cape Fear River and groundwater, contaminating the drinking water sources for tens of thousands of residents.

But Chemours is not the sole discharger of these chemical compounds, which are used to produce everyday goods like food containers, waterproof clothing and stain-resistant carpets, into the region’s drinking water sources.

According to DEQ, there are hundreds of industries in North Carolina that pay wastewater treatment plants to take their industrial waste, the Southern Environmental Law Center said in a March 10 release.

Those treatment plants do not remove PFAS, but “have the authority and obligation to stop their industrial customers from sending toxic pollution like PFAS to their wastewater plants in the first place,” the release states.

Jean Zhuang, a SELC senior attorney, stated in the release that the draft rule presented last week “is offensive to families throughout North Carolina who deserve clean, safe drinking water.”

“Under this rule, PFAS-polluting industries could do absolutely nothing to reduce their toxic waste for the next century and face no consequences,” she said. “This rule protects over 600 industry polluters above communities and abandons the 2.5 million North Carolinians drinking water contaminated with harmful forever chemicals. The Environmental Management Commission cannot move this rule forward.”

During last week’s meeting, committee members discussed various language in the proposed rule, including the frequency with which dischargers would have to collect samples to test for PFAS contamination.

If an industry exceeds a certain PFAS discharge threshold, it would be required to implement a minimization plan and submit that plan to the state or publicly owned treatment works, or POTWs, within a timeframe established in the rule. A minimization plan would be reviewed every two years until the PFAS reduction goals set in the plan are met.

The committee also instructed the Division of Water Resources to complete a draft rule pertaining to 1,4-dioxane and present it in May.

The commission is expected to decide at its May 8 meeting whether to approve a rule outlining health standards for three compounds, PFOA, PFOS, and GenX, in groundwater.

If the rule is approved it will be presented to the state Rules Review Commission this summer. If that commission approves the draft rule, it would become final in July.

Clean Cape Fear is hosting a World Water Day event to address continuing threats of PFAS and 1,4-dioxane pollution from upstream dischargers into the Cape Fear River.

The program is in partnership with the women’s ministry team at St. Andrews-Covenant Presbyterian Church and is being held at the church in Wilmington from 2-4 p.m. March 22. There is no cost to attend. Space is limited.

There will be a panel discussion from features speakers working to address upstream threats of the chemicals that are being discharged into the river, which is the drinking water source for tens of thousands of residents in the Cape Fear region.

Panelists for “Going Upstream: The Environmental State of our Waterways” include Clean Cape Fear co-founder Emily Donovan, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Executive Director Ken Waldrop, senior research scholar and Research Assistant Professor Dr. Jeffrey Enders from North Carolina State University, and Southern Environmental Law Center staff attorney Hannah M. Nelson.

Discussion will include federal per- and polyfluoroalkyl standards and possible changes to those under the Trump administration, an update on how the utility is addressing PFAS and 1,4-dioxane in Wilmington’s tap water, new research on PFAS in sea foam on local beaches, and a policy update on state regulations pertaining to upstream discharges.

Speakers will make short presentations before the panel opens a question-and-answer session with the audience.

For more details visit Clean Cape Fear’s Facebook page or the church’s website.

Tens of thousands of additional private drinking water wells are now eligible for PFAS contamination testing around Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant.

The company, at the direction of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, is expanding well sampling eligibility for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances to portions of Harnett and Hoke counties, according to an agency release.

The state Division of Waste Management will provide more information about expanded well testing and answer questions during a virtual public meeting at 6 p.m. April. 1.

“This expansion comes after Chemours and NC DEQ staff completed an extensive review of existing residential well data around the facility and forecasted the expected areas of contamination beyond the known areas,” the release states.

The expanded area of eligible testing includes about 150,000 additional residences, including significant portions of Cumberland, Bladen, Robeson, Sampson, Hoke and Harnett counties.

To qualify for testing, the private well must be the primary drinking water source for the residence.

Residents who want their wells sampled are directed to call Chemours at 910-678-1101. If prompted to leave a message, callers should leave their full contact information, including address, to ensure their call is recorded. Parsons Environment and Infrastructure, the authorized third-party contractor conducting the sampling for Chemours, may return the call.

Residents may also request testing by copying and pasting this link to their browser to complete Chemours’ online form. 

Those who previously requested sampling and are now newly eligible will be contacted soon by Parsons to arrange sampling, according to DEQ.

The agency said updates on private water well sampling in the Lower Cape Fear region will be announced “in the future,” the release states.

Residents in the six-county area may view additional information about well sampling online.

To join the virtual meeting visit https://bit.ly/3YSigjS and use webinar number 2434 811 3627. The password is Chemours2025 or 24366877 when dialing from a phone or video system.

To join by phone dial 415-655-0003 or 904-900-2303. Tolls may apply.

A reverse osmosis system designed to remove PFAS from Brunswick County Public Utilities’ drinking water supply is projected to be operational by late spring.

Construction at the Northwest Water Treatment Plant, which includes the integration of an advanced low-pressure reverse osmosis system is 85% complete, according to the county website.

The plant’s capacity is also being double from 24 million gallons per day to 48 million gallons per day. The expanded capacity is expected to become available in early spring.

The upgraded treatment system will remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, including GenX, and 1,4-dioxane from the plant’s water source, the Cape Fear River.

Brunswick County Public Utilities customers have been waiting years for the new treatment system to come online after news broke in 2017 that Chemours Chemical Co.’s Fayetteville Works Plant had been discharging PFAS into the river for decades.

Low-pressure reverse osmosis is “considered the most advanced and effective method” to treat and remove PFAS, according to the website.

The county is financing the more than $122 million project, but hopes to recoup at least some of those funds from Chemours.

The utility has joined others in the region in a lawsuit against DuPont and Chemours, charging they are “responsible for the millions of dollars” the county is spending to install the new treatment system. The lawsuit is ongoing.

Reid Wilson does not disagree with those who tell him he had the best job in state government.

He loved being secretary of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

It’s a role he said he’s going to “miss terribly” when he steps in Monday as head of the state Department of Environmental Quality, a position appointed to him by Gov. Josh Stein.

“But I think now is a time of important opportunities and challenges in terms of public health and environmental protection and moving to DEQ brings me back to some of my roots,” he said in a recent telephone interview.

His is a storied environmental career spanning more than a quarter of a century. He’s been an environmental advocate, national political director of the Sierra Club, held three different titles during his tenure of nearly eight years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Clinton administration, and a public affairs consultant to national environmental groups.

Outside of work, he’s a husband and father of two adult children. He declares himself the least musically talented in his family. His brother played the French horn in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for more than 30 years.

Wilson enjoys everything from classical to bluegrass to rock.

And, he loves to do his laundry.

“I don’t trust anyone else not to shrink something,” he said.

Wilson and his wife left the nation’s capital for Raleigh almost 22 years ago, lured by a job he said his wife was doubtful he would get.

She figured the Conservation Trust for North Carolina would not be interested in out-of-state applicants, Wilson said. He applied anyway.

He would go on to lead the statewide nonprofit as its executive director for 14 years. During that time, the organization’s budget nearly doubled and its success in educational outreach to youth in conservation became a national standard.

Wilson has been with the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, or DNCR, since 2017, first at the department’s chief deputy secretary. He was appointed secretary in 2020.

Today, he is grateful to call Raleigh home. Sure, he misses the friends he made in Washington, D.C., but not life inside the Beltway.

He relishes the fact that William B. Umstead State Park is a 15-minute drive from his home.

There’s a particular spot just off Company Mill Trail where Wilson often goes when he needs to think through something or make a big life decision.

Sometimes he goes there to not think at all and breathe in the tranquility he finds in the sound of water cascading over boulders and rock slabs in a creek that cuts through the park.

“It’s just a very peaceful spot for me to sort things out. It’s just perfect for sitting and watching the water in the creek go by as it tumbles over some very small falls,” Wilson said.

He is a self-described lover of hiking. Nature is his refuge.

And whenever he gets the opportunity, he indulges in both, which married well with his position as DNCR secretary because it afforded him opportunities to hike when he visited a park or preserve on official business.

He knows the terrain he’ll be visiting as DEQ secretary will be a tad different. He’s looking forward to visiting as many of the department’s coastal reserves as he can.

“I do think one of the things I want to do is get out more, to leave Raleigh and see what’s going on with DEQ work around the state and especially with all of the challenges associated with Hurricane Helene,” Wilson said. “I want to see those challenges for DEQ firsthand.”

Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend on Sept. 26, 2024, and charged north through western North Carolina, demolishing communities and killing more than 100 people in this state alone.

Wilson did not see the areas hardest hit by the hurricane when he visited portions of western North Carolina with former Gov. Roy Cooper last fall.

“But I did get a good sense of the amazing challenges ahead and the incredible work being done by people in those communities,” he said. “There are piles and piles and piles of debris still in the affected areas. There are water quality issues in lakes and streams. There are challenges with water and drinking water structure that continue so there will be lots of work that DEQ will be doing to help communities in western North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene. I think it’s important to see that work to understand it so that, back in Raleigh, we can do everything we can to efficiently help those communities. One thing I’ve learned over and over again is you understand an issue so much better if you actually go there and see it and talk to the people involved.”

He knows the work related to water quality issues will not be isolated to those areas of the state ravaged by the storm.

Tens of thousands of North Carolinians living everywhere from unincorporated, rural communities to towns and cities, including those within the Cape Fear Region, have been grappling with the knowledge their drinking water sources are contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

PFAS are chemical compounds that are used in the manufacturing of a host of consumer goods from food packaging to water resistant clothing.

While research is ongoing into possible human health effects of these chemicals – there are anywhere from 12,000 to upwards of 15,000 – some have been linked to cardiovascular disease, weakened immune function, various types of cancer and decreased liver and kidney function.

Wilson underscored what he said is a firehose of information that is only starting to trickle in as he takes his new role.

“At this point I have a lot more to study on that issue so that I can speak with a deeper knowledge base,” he said. “Having said that, these are dangerous chemicals that settle in the environment. EPA has set drinking water standards for them that local water utilities must meet to protect their customers.”

The state Environmental Management Commission appears to be moving forward with establishing health standards of PFAS in groundwater, but for only three of eight chemical compounds suggested by DEQ.

The commission’s proposal has been met with a flurry of public backlash as residents demand more protections for their drinking water sources.

“I know there’s conflict about the best next steps to protect people from them, but my hope is to be able to bring together different viewpoints and figure out a way that’s equitable, that protects people from these forever chemicals,” Wilson said.

He has an outline in his head of how he wants the first month to go. There will be meetings with staff, briefings, working with members of the North Carolina Senate on the state confirmation process, and making sure he understands the intricacies of big decisions that will need to be made in his early days with DEQ.

Looking back, Wilson said he’s proud of the dramatic expansion of state park land, trails and other outdoor recreational access in the state park system under his tenure.

The department continues to work hard updating old exhibits at history museums, historic sites and other facilities that share history, expanding their online content, and making sure those exhibits include more perspectives.

He’s particularly proud of the Dueling Dinosaurs exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. If you haven’t seen it, you must, he said.

The one thing he’ll miss most about DNCR secretary? Introducing bands that perform at the big music festivals DNCR sponsors in the state.

“Let’s just put it this way, introducing The Avett Brothers three years ago at MerleFest was a big highlight,” Wilson said. “That’s not going to happen anymore. But I am excited about (DEQ’s) mission, which is to protect public health by protecting air quality, water quality, our land and soils and that mission is also critical to strengthening our state’s economy.”

A federal report that tracks industrial releases of chemicals into the environment will include additional PFAS, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday.

Nine per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances have been added to the Toxics Release Inventory, or TRI, a running list of chemicals manufactured and used by certain facilities. 

Industries and federal facilities that manufacture, process or otherwise use TRI-listed chemicals above set quantities are required to report those chemicals to the EPA each year under the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act.

Businesses and facilities must report the quantities of chemicals being released into the environment or managed as waste.

“EPA continues to make strides in getting information on PFAS into the Toxics Release Inventory so the public can see if these chemicals are being released into their communities,” EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Michal Freedhoff said in a release. “People have a right to know when facilities in their backyards are releasing toxic chemicals into the environment and with today’s action, we are providing important information about nine more.”

The nine PFAS were added to the TRI in accordance with the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which provide the guidance for the yearly addition of PFAS to the list. The newly added PFAS are subject to the EPA’s classification that all PFAS reported to the TRI as chemicals of special concern.

The TRI was established to help companies, government agencies, non-governmental organizations and the public make informed decisions.

Reporting is now required for a total of 205 PFAS.

Facilities required to report the chemicals must begin tracking their activities involving these PFAS immediately, according to the release. Reporting forms are due July 1, 2026.

The nine chemical compounds include:

• Ammonium perfluorodecanoate (PFDA NH4) 
• Sodium perfluorodecanoate (PFDA-Na)
• Perfluoro-3-methoxypropanoic acid 
• 6:2 Fluorotelomer sulfonate acid 
• 6:2 Fluorotelomer sulfonate anion
• 6:2 Fluorotelomer sulfonate potassium salt 
• 6:2 Fluorotelomer sulfonate ammonium salt 
• 6:2 Fluorotelomer sulfonate sodium salt 
• Acetic acid, [(γ-ω-perfluoro-C8-10-alkyl)thio] derivs., Bu esters

The TRI reporting data is available online. Information about the addition of these PFAS may be found online.

The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission is to decide during its next meeting in Raleigh whether to begin the process of setting new groundwater quality standards for three herbicides and a fungicide.

The commission is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 9, in the Ground Floor Hearing Room of the Archdale Building. The public can attend in person or stream the meeting online.

The water allocation committee is scheduled to begin the day of meetings at 9 a.m. Wednesday, followed by the air quality committee, steering committee, and groundwater and waste management committee. These committees will discuss the rules review process.

The water quality committee will close out the day of committee meetings at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday, when members are expected to hear and discuss concepts on minimizing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

The meetings will be streamed online or the public can attend in person in the Archdale building.

The Division of Water Resources director is recommending to the full commission that new groundwater quality standards replace the interim maximum allowable concentrations, or IMACs, established in January 2024 for bentazon, fluometuron, and metolachlor, all herbicides, and boscalid, a fungicide.

Also during the full commission meeting, members are to consider next steps for existing rules going through the periodic review process that address groundwater standards, underground storage tanks, public hearings, and primary recreation standards for Class B waters. State law requires rules be reviewed every 10 years.

The Environmental Management Commission oversees and adopts rules for several divisions of the Department of Environmental Quality, including the Divisions of Air Quality, Land Resources, Waste Management and Water Resources.

Agendas and meeting materials for all meetings are available on the commission website.

Dr. Jordan Poler did not want to create an environmental problem by trying to solve one.

More than a decade ago, the University of North Carolina Charlotte professor decided to focus on chemistry that could be both sustainable and have minimum impact on the environment.

He believes he and his team of researchers have found that sweet spot, a secret sauce of nontoxic ingredients for a recipe that cleans per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and other toxins from drinking water at the point of use, think refrigerator filter for tap water.

Earlier this year, Poler was one of two UNCC professors awarded funding from NCInnovation’s grant program, which aims to help researchers at the state’s public universities get their products from lab to market.

And in an age when the idea of safe drinking water weighs heavy on North Carolinians whose water sources are contaminated by PFAS, what Poler said he has to offer could perhaps not come soon enough for consumers.

His research involves a process called ion exchange, which, in the most basic of explanations, works by trading an atom or group of atoms (ions) with ones that do not degrade the quality of drinking water.

Ion exchange is by no means a novel concept. It was initially observed by two English chemists in 1850 and did not become widely used until the 1940s.

The chemistry developed in Poler’s lab is all water-based.

“There’s really no hazardous waste for our processing and the materials that we start with are all sustainable,” Poler said.

Those materials are a cocktail of sorts that include zeolite, an inexpensive and nontoxic, natural mineral that can be dug out of the ground, and cellulose, which comes from plants, trees and bushes.

“All of the agricultural waste and food waste can be turned into that other starting materials,” Poler said. “We’re really happy about that because we started off using materials that were kind of expensive and now we’ve developed this to basically reduce the cost of those types of starting materials to nearly zero relative to where we started with.”

The result are materials that can be packed into canisters made for water filtration in everything from refrigerators to well water systems.

These materials remove chemicals including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, arsenates, chromates, heavy metals such as iron, and, of course, PFAS.

The mix of materials remove very, very low concentrations of PFAS, down to the 4 parts per trillion maximum contaminant limits the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established for six of the chemical compounds, including PFOA, PFOS, likely carcinogens, and GenX, a compound specific to the Chemours Fayetteville Works facility in Bladen County.

“It does a lot. It’s really quite a lovely hybrid, multi-use solution from a very green and sustainable approach,” Poler said.

PFAS are pervasive throughout North Carolina and the nation where they have been released into the environment by various manufacturing companies. PFAS are used in the production of a host of consumer goods, including food containers, stain- and water-resistant fabrics and firefighting foams.

Tests have detected these compounds in drinking water sources that are tapped by hundreds of public utilities throughout the state. PFAS have also been found in thousands of privately owned wells.

Exposure to PFAS has been linked to health effects including an increase in certain types of cancers, suppression of the immune system, low birth weight in infants and changes in liver function.

“It’s very hard to remove things at extremely low concentrations,” Poler said. “That’s why PFAS is such a challenge because it bioaccumulates. You can be drinking this water for years and then these problems creep in. So, ion exchange is, I think, the way to go.”

Poler founded a startup called naneXPure LLC, a company that is, by all accounts at the moment, a placeholder, but one intended to translate the technology developed in his lab into the marketplace.

He and his business partner are working with Monroe-based Goulston Technologies to broaden the drinking water purification materials crafted in his lab to industry scale.

The materials being developed in his lab are regenerable and reusable. That means that, unlike refrigerator filters that must be replaced every six months or so, what he has developed can be made good as new.

Regenerating materials not only cut down on plastic waste, but they keep used, discarded filters out of landfills and, therefore, out of leaching back into the environment.

Say you have a system that’s good for purifying 100,000 liters of water.

“It’s 100,000 liters of very low-contaminated water, but you don’t want to drink that contaminant so you’d purify it,” Poler said. “And then, when we regenerate it, we have maybe one liter of highly contaminated regenerate that can then be very easily destroyed by other types of technologies.”

The materials developed in Poler’s lab will have to be certified by the National Sanitation Foundation. Funding for that testing will be covered under the $400,000 NCInnovations grant Poler received.

Poler’s idea is that consumers would initially buy two cartridges. When materials in the first cartridge that is used needs to be replaced, that cartridge could be shipped back for regeneration in a mailer that would be provided by the company.

“It might be pie in the sky,” Poler said. “But that’s been my long-term goal.”

The technology has the potential to be used on a larger, water utility-type scale.

WILMINGTON – Wayne Lewis stood before state environmental regulatory officials Monday night and told the story about his wife.

He described how, on an evening in 2009 just before she went to bed, she started vomiting blood. He detailed how the couple was shocked by her medical diagnosis: sclerosis of the liver. He explained how the doctors who made that diagnosis at the University of North Carolina Medical Center in Chapel Hill could not determine how or why she got the disease.

“She never drank,” Lewis said, referring to alcoholic beverages. “The only thing she would drink was water, unsweetened tea, maybe a little Sprite. When we went out to eat it was unsweetened tea. She didn’t smoke. They ruled out Tylenol because she didn’t take Tylenol.”

She was tested a handful of times for hepatitis. The results always came back the same, negative.

“They said it was no reason for her to have that disease and that’s why I brought you my report from my water,” Lewis said.

Preliminary and final results indicate that his drinking water contained a total per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, concentration of 381.5 parts per trillion, more than 50 times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum contamination level for legacy compounds PFOA and PFOS, and nearly 40 times higher than limits established for a handful of other compounds, including GenX, which is manufactured upriver near Fayetteville.

Lewis was the first in a string of residents predominately from New Hanover and Brunswick counties who braved the evening chill Monday to speak during the state-held public hearing at Cape Fear Community College on proposed health standards for PFAS in groundwater. The hearing was the second of three held in recent days, the last of which was in Raleigh Tuesday night.

Most of those who spoke at the hearing in Wilmington shared sentiments of frustration with the state Environmental Management Commission for not adopting health standards sooner, for including only three substances — there are anywhere from 12,000 to upwards of 15,000 related compounds — of the eight for which the Department of Environmental Quality had proposed standards, and for what the commission’s critics call pandering to the very industries responsible for discharging the chemical compounds into the environment.

Looking back: Commission members balk on 5 proposed PFAS standards

Hearing officer Jacqueline Gibson, one of the 15 commission members, listened as residents from the lower Cape Fear region urged the commission to adopt health standards for PFAS as a class of chemicals, rather than as individual chemical compounds, for both groundwater and surface waters.

The Cape Fear region was rocked by news in 2017 that the Chemours Co.’s Fayetteville Works facility, some 70 miles upstream of Wilmington, had for decades been discharging PFAS into the Cape Fear River, groundwater and air, contaminating drinking water sources for tens of thousands of residents.

Chemours is not the sole discharger of these chemical compounds — varied PFAS are used to produce everyday goods like food containers, waterproof clothing and stain-resistant carpets — into the region’s drinking water sources. Communities, private well owners and utilities throughout the state are struggling with PFAS contamination.

Earlier this fall, the commission, whose role is to adopt rules to protect, preserve and enhance the state’s water and air resources, voted to move forward with a proposed draft rule outlining health standards for PFOA, PFOS and GenX in groundwater.

The EPA classifies those first two compounds as likely carcinogens. Researchers are still trying to grasp the potential health effects of GenX, a compound specific to Chemours’ plant on the banks of the Cape Fear River.

The proposed rule omits the five other compounds that DEQ had sought to include in proposed groundwater limits.

“We’re worried about our health and we don’t want unnecessary groundwater exposure,” Brunswick County resident Joanne Levitan said. “It’s time to stop putting business interests ahead of people to protect the citizens of North Carolina from PFAS by enacting proposed groundwater standards and further by regulating all PFAS as a class.”

In October, DEQ Division of Water Resources Director Richard Rogers set interim maximum allowable concentrations for eight PFAS, including PFBS, PFNA, PFHxS, PFBA and PFHxA.

State groundwater rules grant any person the right to request the water resources director establish an interim maximum allowable concentration for a substance for which a groundwater standard has not been set. Rogers set the limits after an Alamance County couple made the request for him to do so.

Rogers will, within a year, recommend to the commission whether any of the interim maximum allowable concentration should be replaced or terminated.

Dr. Robert Parr, a retired emergency physician and Wilmington resident who spoke before the Environmental Management Commission Monday, listed the human health effects associated with PFAS, including various types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, weakened immune function and decreased liver and kidney function.

“It is well past the time that the EMC stopped fooling around and playing around with deadly chemicals, toxic pollutants that endanger public health and safety,” he said. “Now is the time for the EMC to fulfill its primary responsibility and defend present and future generations of North Carolinians from protecting, preserving and enhancing our state’s air and water quality resources.”

Brunswick County resident Jonathan Pattishall described the difficulties he’s had with getting answers on how he can get his private well tested for PFAS.

“I’m asking you to adopt rules governing PFAS as an entire class of chemicals,” he said. “This process is already difficult and confusing enough. Most people who are on private wells are not chemists or lawyers. They’re not government administrators. We don’t handle this kind of information. We need the EMC and the DEQ to help us out, to make it easier by drafting separate rules for all PFAS.”

The commission is expected to decide whether to approve the hearing officer’s report and final fiscal and regulatory impact analysis on the draft rule in May 2025. If approved, the rule would be presented to the state Rules Review Commission next summer.

If the rules commission approves the draft rule, it would become final in July, roughly five years after Lewis lost his wife in 2019.

She spent her final 10 days in an intensive care unit. She was 58.

After Gibson proclaimed the hearing adjourned, Lewis shouted from his seat, “Does it do any good? Or, are you just going to do what you want to do?”

Public comments on the proposed draft rule will be accepted through Dec. 31 by email to GWTriRevComments@deq.nc.gov or by mail to Bridget Shelton, NC DEQ Division of Water Resources, Planning Section 1611 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C. 27699-1611.

The Environmental Management Commission, when it meets this month, is to consider approving a public notice and hearing on proposed revisions to wastewater-discharge rules put in place to reduce fish kills, harmful algal blooms and other longstanding water quality problems in the Pamlico estuary.

The commission’s committees are to start meeting at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, and the full commission is set to meet at 9 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, both in the ground-floor hearing room of the Archdale Building in Raleigh.

The public is welcome to attend the meeting in person, by phone or livestream. Instructions for how to join as well as the agendas and supporting documents are on the commission website.

The commission oversees and adopts rules for several divisions of the Department of Environmental Quality, including the divisions of Air Quality, Land Resources, Waste Management and Water Resources.

The commission in 1989 designated the entire Tar-Pamlico River watershed as nutrient-sensitive waters because of the problems choking its marine life.

In 1990, the Division of Water Resources and the commission signed an agreement with the Tar-Pamlico Basin Association, a group of point-source wastewater dischargers. The current version of the agreement expires next year.

A point-source discharge is “any single identifiable source of pollution from which pollutants are discharged, such as a pipe, ditch, ship or factory smokestack,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The commission adopted in 2001 the Tar-Pamlico Nutrient Strategy, a set of rules designed to regulate nutrient pollution from wastewater, stormwater and
agricultural nutrient sources.

Officials say that the agreement’s renewal would continue work toward nutrient point-source reduction objectives and provide a clear regulatory path.

Also on the slate for the two-day session, the air quality committee is scheduled to meet first on Nov. 13, followed by water allocation, water quality and groundwater committees.

Each committee is expected to consider approving steps of the rulemaking process for a handful of permit changes. The water quality committee is to hear updates on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, source reductions and minimization plans based with a focus on the steps Michigan has put in place, and on 1,4-dioxane.

The state’s environmental regulatory agency has established temporary caps on the amounts of several PFAS that industries will be allowed to release into groundwater.

Until permanent limits are set, interim maximum allowable concentrations introduced by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources allows officials to set cleanup targets for groundwater contaminated with high levels of the chemical compounds.

The division’s announcement last week came on the heels of a study that found per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, including some of those for which the state has set interim allowable limits, have remained in groundwater offsite of Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant for up to more than 40 years.

Water resources division Director Richard Rogers will, within a year, recommend to the state Environmental Management Commission, or EMC, whether any of the interim maximum allowable concentrations, or IMACs, should be replaced or terminated.

That 15-member commission, whose role is to adopt rules that protect, preserve and enhance the state’s water and air resources, voted earlier this fall to move forward with a proposed draft rule outlining health standards for three PFAS in groundwater.

The proposed rule includes PFOA and PFOS, which are classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as likely carcinogens, and GenX, a compound specific to Chemours’ plant on the banks of the Cape Fear River.

The Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, announced Monday that public comments on the proposed draft rule will be accepted from Nov. 1 – Dec. 31 by email to GWTriRevComments@deq.nc.gov or by mail to Bridget Shelton, NC DEQ Division of Water Resources, Planning Section 1611 Mail Service Center Raleigh, N.C. 27699-1611. The EMC and DEQ will also host three public hearings on the proposed draft rule beginning next month.

The commission is expected to vote on the draft rule next year. If approved, the rule is anticipated to be effective by mid-2025.

The commission omitted five other compounds state environmental quality officials sought to include in proposed groundwater limits.

Those five – PFBS, PFNA, PFHxS, PFBA and PFHxA – were specifically listed along with PFOA, PFOS and GenX in a July request by an Alamance County couple asking Rogers to establish interim maximum allowable concentrations in groundwater for all eight compounds.

Related: Public may comment on requested interim PFAS limits

State groundwater rules grant any person the right to request the water resources director establish an IMAC for a substance for which a groundwater standard has not been set.

Graham residents Jonathan and Stephanie Gordon wrote that at least a half-dozen drinking water wells in their community tested for “extremely high levels of PFAS.”

“Issuing an IMAC will only be one step towards the relief we need, but it will at least give us greater clarity about the risk we face and the eventual obligations for unknown responsible parties to address the contamination they have visited upon us,” they wrote.

The EMC’s decision to move forward with only three of the eight PFAS recommended by DEQ was met with swift backlash from residents and environmental groups fighting for protections from PFAS for both groundwater and surface water.

Groundwater supports about 50% of drinking water in North Carolina.

Environmental justice organization Democracy Green has launched the campaign “Ban the Eight,” which includes an open petition urging the EMC to include all eight compounds in the draft proposed rule.

“We want all eight because if you’re going to do it for one you do it for all because that reaches more of the 100 counties of North Carolina that are dealing with PFAS, whether it’s from military bases, whether it’s from airports, both small and large, the Haw River all the way down to the Cape Fear,” said Democracy Green cofounder, La’Meshia Whittington. “They’re piecemealing it. People in North Carolina can’t afford that. This is a big deal for DEQ to set this precedence to say we’re going to use the EPA’s fullest authority because EMC keeps dragging their feet.”

The EMC is scheduled to meet Nov. 13-14 in Raleigh. An agenda for that meeting has not been published.

PFAS have been observed in more than 7,000 private drinking water wells within about a 13-mile radius of the Chemours plant, according to DEQ.

The chemistry company and other industries are responsible for emitting PFAS into the environment in the Cape Fear River basin, the largest in the state and one with surface water resources that are the drinking source for about 1.5 million people.

The long, slow purge

A recently published study headed by researchers at N.C. State University found it may take decades before PFAS flushes from groundwater around the Chemours plant and into the Cape Fear River.

Dr. David Genereux, a professor with the university’s Department of Marine, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, and coauthor of the study said PFAS emitted into the environment up to more than 40 years ago were found in groundwater within a test site immediately surrounding Chemours’ Fayetteville Works Facility in Bladen County.

Researchers collected samples beneath streams, which is where groundwater directly flows into surface waters.

Genereux said that a great deal of work is being done by researchers documenting the current state of PFAS by measuring it in groundwater and defining what’s there now.

“What’s different in this new paper is that we’re looking ahead to the future and not just the way things are right now,” he said. “We’re specifically looking ahead to estimate how long that PFAS would be in groundwater up near Fayetteville Works and how long it would take for that PFAS to flush out of the ground and into streams by the natural flow of the groundwater because that really is its ultimate fate.”

Instead of degrading in the ground, PFAS flows toward streams. Once the compounds make into the streams, they then flow into the Cape Fear River.

Genereux said researchers estimate it will take until about at least 2060 “possibly much longer” for PFAS currently in the ground to flush into tributaries of the Cape Fear. If compounds diffuse into clays, “that would really slow it down,” he said.

“That means that PFAS could continue to affect the river water users downstream for some decades to come,” he said.

PFAS targeted in the study are those released during the so-called high emission years from roughly the 1980s to 2019, the year Chemours, DEQ and Cape Fear River Watch entered into a Consent Order that requires the plant reduce its PFAS emissions into the air, ground and river.

The company has, through various emission controls, reduced the amount of PFAS it releases into the environment in recent years, but not at net-zero, Genereux said.

That means PFAS released into the air and hitting the ground continues to feed into the groundwater.

“There’s no time horizon for when that will flush because that source is still ongoing,” Genereux said.

If PFAS diffuse into and then back out of clays, that can significantly slow the flushing process of a compound through a groundwater system. It’s a phenomenon studied for chemicals in other places, but not the private land and agriculture fields around the Fayetteville Works plant.

Researchers have large proposal pending to try and additional funding to study clay diffusion in that area and other aspects of PFAS, including health outcomes of private well water users exposed to decades of contamination.

They’re also working on a study focusing on a small number of drinking water wells to try and estimate how long PFAS might remain persistent in wells.

“The conclusions we reached in the paper about the groundwater system broadly, as a whole, are not necessarily directly applicable to each individual drinking water well,” Genereux said. “Some drinking water wells might clear up faster than the groundwater systems as a whole, especially shallower wells. But, overall, it could be a problem at individual wells for decades.”

A Wilmington-area community action group intends to “shine a spotlight on business-related human rights abuses associated with PFAS contamination in North Carolina” this week at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

Clean Cape Fear cofounders Emily Donovan and Jessica Cannon intend to “urge global action and polluter accountability in order to address one of the most devastating environmental and public health crises of our lifetime,” the nonprofit announced Monday.

Clean Cape Fear was established in 2017 after learning contaminants called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, were being released upstream by a chemical company near Fayetteville into the Cape Fear River, a drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of residents in New Hanover and Brunswick counties. Studies suggest that the chemicals are linked to adverse human health effects.

Donovan is scheduled to speak at 1:15 p.m. Tuesday during an event hosted by Mary Lawlor, UN special rapporteur and author of a new report on the contributions of Human Rights Defenders to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The event will be livestreamed on WebTV.un.org. 

“We’ve fought on every level, and know this isn’t just a local or national issue—PFAS contamination is a global public health crisis,” Donovan said in a statement. “We’re grateful UN human rights experts recognize our work and are elevating it. It’s time for polluters and governments alike to be held accountable for the toxic legacy they’ve left behind.”

North Carolina’s chief administrative law judge and former head of the state’s environmental regulatory agency has eliminated a state cap on the amount of a chemical solvent some municipal wastewater treatment plants discharge.

Chief Administrative Law Judge and Director of the Office of Administrative Hearings Dr. Donald van der Vaart revoked permit limits of 1,4-dioxane for wastewater treatment plants that discharge the chemical substance, one the federal Environmental Protection Agency classifies as a likely human carcinogen, into the drinking water sources of tens of thousands of people.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality officials did not follow the letter of the law written in state statutes when they calculated discharge limits and established an enforceable water quality standard for 1,4-dioxane, van der Vaart ruled. In his Sept. 12 decision, van der Vaart also said DEQ erred by considering the chemical substance a carcinogen.

“The [Environmental Protection Agency] has characterized 1,4-dioxane as ‘likely to be carcinogenic to humans,’” he wrote. “The EPA has not characterized 1,4-dioxane as ‘carcinogenic to humans.’”

DEQ has 30 days to appeal van der Vaart’s decision.

A North Carolina Department of Justice spokesperson said by email Monday state attorneys are reviewing the decision with DEQ.

In its 2023 draft revised risk determination for 1,4-dioxane as a chemical under the Toxic Substances Control Act, the EPA “proposes that exposure to drinking water sources from surface water that is contaminated by 1,4-dioxane released from industrial facilities contributes to the unreasonable risk” to human health.

The compound is used primarily as a solvent in chemical manufacturing.

Wastewater treatments plants operated by the cities of Greensboro, Asheboro and Reidsville receive 1,4-dioxane emitted from textile, chemical and plastics manufacturers. Those wastewater treatment facilities then discharge the chemical into surface waters that flow downstream to the Cape Fear region, an area plagued with drinking water contamination from industrial releases of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

PFAS are widely used, human-made chemicals that can be found in a host of consumer products, including stain-resistant carpets, fast food packaging, and water-resistant apparel. Studies of possible human health effects of PFAS, including those found in the Cape Fear River, the drinking water source for tens of thousands of North Carolinians, have found that the chemical substances can cause damage to the liver and immune system, low birth weight, and increase risk of some cancers.

In August 2023, DEQ’s Division of Water Resources issued Asheboro a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit limiting the city wastewater treatment plant’s release of 1,4-dioxane.

The city sued, challenging the state’s power to include the 1,4-dioxane water quality standard in the permit and arguing it faced excessive financial burden because of the new limits.

The cities of Greensboro and Reidsville joined in the lawsuit after both were issued notices of violation for 1,4-dioxane discharges in November 2019 and required to consent by special order to include discharge limits in their draft NPDES permits.

Brunswick County, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority and Fayetteville Public Works Commission intervened in the case, asserting that upstream 1,4-dioxane dischargers placed an undue financial burden on them to sample drinking water sources for the chemical and try and reduce the level of consumption of it to their customers.

In his ruling, van der Vaart noted that a regulatory impact analysis, which assesses possible financial impacts of proposed rules, states that costs associated with controlling discharges of 1,4-dioxane “… are anticipated to be prohibitively expensive for local governments and the citizens served by public utilities,” but acknowledges “ongoing costs benefits associated with the monitoring and treatment of 1,4-dioxane are likely to be considerable.”

Van der Vaart was appointed DEQ secretary in 2015 by then-Gov. Pat McCrory. In 2017, under the leadership of then-Secretary Michael Regan, van der Vaart was placed on administrative leave. Van der Vaart later resigned from DEQ.

Following growing public outcry in recent years, both the EPA, now headed by Regan, and DEQ have begun to address the releases of some of these compounds – there are more than 10,000 – into drinking water sources.

Earlier this year, EPA announced final maximum contaminant levels limiting a half-dozen PFAS in drinking water.

DEQ’s proposed draft rule outlining health standards for PFOA, PFOS and GenX in groundwater is heading for public comment after a unanimous vote of the state’s Environmental Management Commission.

Groundwater supports about half of drinking water supplies in North Carolina.

The commission decided to omit five PFAS initially included in the proposed draft rule.

The board is still hashing out DEQ’s proposal to establish surface water rules for all eight PFAS. Earlier this month, the commission’s water quality committee instructed DEQ to develop a draft rule and regulatory impact analysis that would establish monitoring requirements for every industrial and NPDES permit and require every industrial and significant industrial user to include PFAS source-reduction plans in their municipal pretreatment plans.

The Republican-majority commission has come under fire for what some state officials and environmental groups are calling stall tactics.

In a meeting earlier this month, some commissioners continued to refute those claims, saying that they were committed to addressing 1,4-dioxane discharges into drinking water sources in the state.

Commission members briefly discussed a petition to the EPA asking the agency to strip North Carolina’s authority to administer the NPDES permit program. North Carolina is one of 47 states authorized by the EPA to implement the permit program.

Cape Fear River Watch, Environmental Justice Community Action Network, Haw River Assembly, and MountainTrue filed the petition Aug. 28, arguing that the North Carolina General Assembly had blocked DEQ from “effectively implementing” its NPDES permit program and protecting North Carolinians from water pollution.

The General Assembly has amended laws that dictate who appoints members of the Environmental Management Commission and Rules Review Commission, “such that these commissions have been effectively captured by a supermajority in the legislature that is hostile to environmentally protective regulation,” according to the petition.

Legislators have also enacted laws that give the Office of Administrative Hearings “final decision-making authority over NPDES permits, thereby stripping DEQ and the EMC of the roles assigned them,” the petition states.

The EPA “generally works” with a state and petitioner to resolve issues raised in a petition, according to the agency’s website.

Kelly Moser, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Chapel Hill office, confirmed late last week that the EPA is taking the petition under advisement. The EPA’s Atlanta region press office did not respond to a request for comment.

“We’ve had concerns about the legislature control over the EMC and we’re just seeing that playing out in the latest delays that the EMC has created in North Carolina’s attempts to protect people from harmful industrial chemicals,” she said in a telephone interview. “The people of North Carolina deserve to have access to clean water and the actions by the state legislature, the EMC and now ALJ van der Vaart are standing in the way of North Carolinians having access to clean water. We are confident that EPA will take our petition seriously and that the state will hopefully be forced to come into compliance.”

Updated at 2:30 p.m.

A proposed draft rule outlining health standards for PFAS in groundwater, which supports about 50% of drinking water in North Carolina, is heading for public comment.

The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission on Thursday morning unanimously waived a 30-day public notice, a move that expedites the rulemaking process for three per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS: PFOA, PFOS and GenX.

Hearing locations and dates will be published in the state Register. A public comment period will begin once that information is published.

The commission is expected to vote on the draft rule next year. If approved, the rule is anticipated to be effective by mid-2025.

The proposed rule was revised from an earlier version the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality drafted that included five other manmade chemical compounds.

The commission’s groundwater and waste management committee earlier this summer voted to omit those compounds from the proposed rule, focusing on PFOS and PFOA, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified as likely carcinogens, and GenX, a compound specific to Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility on the banks of the Cape Fear River.

In a brief presentation to the commission, Bridget Shelton, DEQ’s groundwater standards coordinator, explained that when there is no established health standard for a manmade compound, regulatory agencies refer to practical quantitation limits, or PQLs.

PQLs are considered the base line in testing laboratories. PQL values can change over time and vary across different laboratories, Shelton said.

“To develop a groundwater standard for a substance we find each of these values, if they are available, and then we select the lowest of the value to be the most protective of human health,” she said.

The proposed rule would be used to establish goals for cleaning contamination in groundwater, limit permitted releases of PFAS to groundwater, and ensure residents whose drinking water exceeds contamination limits receive alternative water supplies.

“With us bringing forward the three compounds, the PFOS and the PFOA, we all know they’re legacy compounds,” Commissioner Joseph Reardon said. “There’s no dispute about where EPA is in the context of this being potential carcinogens. We know the struggles that the citizens of North Carolina have had with GenX and so we’re comfortable with these three chemicals, taking the levels of which have been identified in the body of the request here. On the other five remaining compounds, had the committee chose to include those, it would have allowed more of the chemical in the water, but by the department regulating at the PQL level for those other five, lessens the amount of these compounds in the water.”

Commission members are continuing to hash out DEQ’s proposal to establish surface water rules for all eight PFAS.

Following heated exchanges Wednesday afternoon, the commission’s water quality committee unanimously voted to instruct DEQ to develop a draft rule and regulatory impact analysis, or RIA, that would establish monitoring requirements for every industrial and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit and require every industrial and significant industrial user to include PFAS source-reduction plans in their municipal pretreatment plans.

Commission Chair JD Solomon, acting as an ex officio member of the committee, suggested Wednesday the committee act on that proposed rule as a way to move forward and get regulations in place to reduce PFAS concentrations in surface water.

“I think we’re at an impasse,” he said. “I don’t blame anybody at this point. I want to get it done for the people of the state and I want to get PFAS reductions in surface water. This way we keep it with the industrial dischargers and we can identify who the bad players are and make them pay and not just spread it out to the whole watershed because we can’t agree on what all that stuff is right now. I want to get this out. I want to get this moving.”

DEQ Assistant Secretary Sushma Masemore explained that DEQ began requiring monitoring of PFAS discharges for NPDES permit holders almost a year ago.

“We’re going to need guidance to require source reduction and associated plans,” she said to the committee. “Is this mainly voluntary? What are we going to be asking? We’re going to need some directions in order to produce a credible (regulatory impact analysis) in order to produce a rule text that you all think meets this process and at the end of the day, when someone asks are we achieving reductions, we want to be able to answer this question.”

The earliest this new proposed draft rule would go before the full commission would be during its November meeting.

It is unclear when and if the water quality committee will approve DEQ’s proposed draft surface water rules for eight PFAS, including the PFOA, PFOS, GenX, PFBS, PFNA, PFHxS, PFBA and PFHxA to go to the commission for a vote.

Committee members at times verbally sparred over information included in DEQ’s proposed draft rule and regulatory impact analysis for surface water rules on those chemical compounds.

Members raised concerns about data that links the transfer of PFAS contamination in surface water to contamination in agricultural crops and animals, such as cattle that drink water containing PFAS.

“My concern is, have we overstated the exposure of PFAS from food?” Reardon said. “I’m concerned that the way this is written and the percentage that we’re associated with PFAS from food is going to unduly implicate the food in North Carolina as being latent with PFAS, or that our national food supply is latent with PFAS, that we expect 20-some percent of our exposure to come from food.”

DEQ’s Masemore explained that the water farmers and backyard gardeners use to grow food and hydrate livestock comes from surface water that could be laden with PFAS.

“The record shows that 86% of the water used in the agricultural practices, whether it’s to grow crops or to raise animals, are extracted from surface water intakes,” she said. “We’re not saying that all of this is there. What we’re saying is by having a regulation that reduces that PFAS in those surface waters, and therefore you’re reducing the concentration in those waters that are ultimately used for these purposes, then what are the potential benefits associated with that.”

The committee voted 5-2 that they will wait to move on the proposed draft rule until they meet with U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials or receive a written response from that agency for clarification.

Committee member Marion Deerhake opposed the motion, noting before votes were cast that comments she had emailed the committee chair on Aug. 6 were not included in a package shared with the committee and DEQ.

“I feel like my comments, my positive comments, are being ignored,” she said. “You said you would take care of it and it’s not in the package that you distributed. I am very concerned about the process that is being handled today. The comments that are coming in on the (regulatory impact analysis) are selective. They are from specific parties that are interested in this rule for their own benefit. I have to object to that.”

Some of her fellow committee members pushed back, saying they have not been unduly influenced.

“I reject that assertion that we are being guided by people from the outside,” Tim Baumgartner said. “You’re making it seem like we don’t have brains to look at this ourselves and make these determinations ourselves. I have an opinion on it. I don’t really care what the outside public says and I believe in our hearts because I think it’s the right thing to do for this motion to carry forward and for the department and EMC to have a discussion with FDA and (North Carolina Department of Agriculture) before this moves forward.”

Michael Ellison, the committee vice chair, concurred.

“I’ve received more phone calls and emails from outside individuals, somewhere around 200, that urged rapid and immediate action of PFAS based on these documents,” he said. “My questions are my questions and they’re technical. It does not serve the people of North Carolina to go forward to public notice or perpetuate this process when we know we have a severely flawed (impact analysis) that is, in many cases, predicated on fallacies, scientific fallacies.”

Both commissioners followed up on their comments Thursday.

Baumgartner said the commission has not “let cancel culture stand in our way.”

“When issues are pushed too hard, too fast, there’s always a back story and a reason,” he said. Some advice to pass on, if you push too hard, too fast, someone’s going to question a motive and ask why. Instead of trashing those attempting to understand, take a moment and work through the issues. You might get to the same end-point faster.”

Advocacy groups are asking the Environmental Protection Agency to revoke the state’s authority to regulate water pollution because of legislature interference.

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed Wednesday a 65-page petition requesting the federal agency withdraw North Carolina’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, authority because lawmakers have been “unlawfully stripping” North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality of its ability “to protect its waterways, drinking water sources, and communities from harmful pollution.”

The federal Clean Water Act implemented the NPDES permit program in 1972 to address water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants to waters of the United States.

“DEQ operates the NPDES program in compliance with the Clean Water Act as delegated to the State by EPA. Our staff is dedicated to carrying out our delegated authority in a manner that protects the resources and residents of North Carolina,” DEQ officials said Wednesday in response to a request for comment.

The petition, filed on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch, the Environmental Justice Community Action Network, MountainTrue, and the Haw River Assembly, “documents how the North Carolina General Assembly has systematically undermined the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and the Environmental Management Commission to the point that the state can no longer effectively protect its waters, including through the following actions.”

The petition also argues that the General Assembly has caused North Carolina to violate the Clean Water Act requirements and the memorandum of agreement between the state and EPA that governs how the state administers its NPDES program.

“The people of North Carolina deserve clean water, yet the state legislature is preventing the state from limiting toxic pollution of our waterways and drinking water,” Mary Maclean Asbill, Southern Environmental Law Center North Carolina offices director, said in a statement. “Legislative-induced failure is not an option when it comes to protecting North Carolina’s water and communities, so we are asking the Environmental Protection Agency to step in.”

The petition asserts that the legislature has systematically acted to block NCDEQ from effectively implementing its NPDES permit program and from protecting residents from water pollution, including chemicals like per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and 1,4-dioxane.

“For instance, the legislature has amended the state laws governing the appointment and composition of the State’s Environmental Management Commission (“EMC”) and Rules Review Commission (“RRC”) such that these commissions have been effectively captured by a supermajority in the legislature that is hostile to environmentally protective regulation. Together these commissions are blocking the agency’s development and use of numeric water quality standards for PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, impeding its implementation of the narrative standards,1 and threatening to take permitting authority away from agency experts,” the petition states.

The petition continues that the legislature has enacted legislation that gives the Office of Administrative Hearings final decision-making authority over NPDES permits, “thereby stripping DEQ and the EMC of the roles assigned them by the Memorandum of Agreement and threatening DEQ’s ability to issue protective permits.”

The legislature has enacted laws prescribing specific permitting conditions for discharges from fish farms and wastewater discharges into small creeks and streams. “These laws unlawfully usurp the State’s environmental agencies’ authority to evaluate permit applications and issue permits tailored to the discharger and receiving waterbody. These laws also prevent the public from participating in the permitting process, and they violate the backsliding provisions of the Clean Water Act,” according to the petition.

And, the legislature-enacted state budget “has perpetually and systematically underfunded DEQ for over a decade, resulting in a backlog of expired NPDES permits and a lack of agency capacity to adequately develop and enforce protective NPDES permits.”

The law center agues that the “legislature has gone too far. To protect North Carolinians, EPA should withdraw North Carolina’s NPDES permitting program unless these issues are resolved and the State is returned to compliance.”

Reprinted from North Carolina Health News

Last week, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a suit brought by Chemours. The chemical company, which manufactures GenX (HFPO-DA), a class of a per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, at its Fayetteville Works facility, challenged the health advisory established by the agency in 2022 for GenX in groundwater.

Chemours claimed the EPA set the advisory level too low — at 10 parts per trillion — and relied on faulty research to establish it. However, the three-judge panel ruled that the advisory was not a federal regulation and, therefore, rejected Chemours’ argument the EPA acted unlawfully when issuing a health advisory about the exposure risks of GenX in drinking water.

“Through the years, our community has learned that when companies like Chemours are not actively hiding the science, they are usually attacking it,” said Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear. “This is a win for public health and every resident harmed by GenX exposures. The courts got it right this time.”

In April 2024, the EPA established maximum contaminant levels for six PFAS in drinking water, out of the thousands of PFAS manufactured in the U.S. 

The court’s ruling means a consent order, established in 2019 between Chemours, Cape Fear River Watch, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, will remain intact — at least for now. Chemours vows to mount more court challenges.  

Under the consent order, Chemours is required to carry out specific tasks, such as drinking water well testing, for people who live near the site, including in New Hanover, Brunswick, Pender and Columbus counties.

That includes extending testing to one-quarter mile beyond the closest well with PFAS levels above 10 parts per trillion and annually retesting any wells sampled. Additionally, Chemours is responsible for providing clean drinking water options, such as whole-house filtration systems, to those with wells contaminated with GenX compounds above 10 ppt.

For area homeowners like Wilmington resident and business owner Steve Schnitzler, whose well’s GenX level exceeded the health advisory standard when it was tested in August 2023, the court’s ruling means Chemours must keep providing safe drinking water to his home.

“I have four reverse osmosis systems in my house right now that Chemours paid for and will maintain for the next 20 years so that we can have clean drinking water,” he said.

‘Forever chemicals’

There are roughly 15,000 unique per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) in the environment, according to experts. Because of their persistence in the environment, PFAS are commonly referred to as “forever chemicals.” They are present in multiple products, including cosmetics and apparel, microwave popcorn wrappers, dental floss, firefighting turnout gear and some firefighting foams.

The chemicals are associated with such adverse health effects as increased cholesterol levels, kidney and testicular cancer, dangerously high blood pressure in pregnant women and decreased vaccine response in children.

The two most extensively produced and studied families of compounds, PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonic acid), have been phased out in the U.S. Still, because they don’t break down quickly, they can keep accumulating in the environment and in the human body. GenX or HFPO-DA (hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid) was created as a replacement for PFOA.

PFAS Glossary

PFOA – Perfluorooctanoic acid, also known as C8, is produced and used as an industrial surfactant, which helps things not to stick to one another in chemical processes. It also is a raw material for other forms of PFAS. PFOA was widely manufactured but has largely been phased out of production. 

PFOS – Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid was a key ingredient in Scotchgard before being banned by the European Union and Canada. Several U.S. states have banned the chemical, derivatives of which were also used in cosmetics. The EPA announced in 2021 that it would regulate the presence of PFOS in drinking water.

GenX – is a derivative salt of hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA) and was manufactured by Chemours. It’s the substance initially found contaminating the Cape Fear River in 2017. GenX has been used widely in food wrappings, paints, cleaning products, nonstick coatings and some firefighting foams.  

A win for now?

Chemours plans to continue to press its case against the EPA’s position on forever chemicals and will next look to present arguments in a Washington, D.C., appeals court, according to Reuters. 

Looming in the background of the legal battle between Chemours and the EPA is the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. The court ruled that federal agencies such as the EPA would no longer have the authority to use their expertise to interpret ambiguous laws. Instead, judges will assume responsibility for doing so.

The ruling affects the so-called Chevron Doctrine, which emerged from a 1984 Supreme Court case between Chevron Corp. and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The court ruled to defer to the experts at regulatory agencies when federal regulations were ambiguous, so long as the regulators provided a reasonable interpretation.

Could the Supreme Court’s ruling handicap regulators and tip the scales and favor corporations such as Chemours in future cases?

“The repeal of Chevron deference can cut both ways,” said Tom Fox, senior legislative counsel for the Oakland, California-based Center of Environmental Health. 

“After all, Chevron v. [Natural Resources Defense Counsel] in 1984 was a case brought by NRDC challenging the Reagan administration’s deregulatory actions under the Clean Air Act.” Fox said. “It could be argued that Loper Bright may make it easier to challenge deregulatory actions. It also could be argued that the court’s decision did not affect deference to agency scientific judgments. However, we have seen numerous examples of the Roberts court (and lower court judges) ignoring and/or cherry-picking facts, science and history.”

When asked what environmental groups and their supporters can do to prepare for a possible shifting legal landscape, Fox said to do their homework and stay vigilant.

“I would advise public interest organizations to be strategic in bringing cases in appropriate judicial districts,” he said. “In addition, the Loper Bright decision highlights the importance of science and community involvement in agency rulemakings.”

As a business owner, Schnitzler posed a question for those who place business interests above public health.

“This general ‘business can do no wrong, and we have to keep allowing [corporations] to do horrible things because otherwise we’ll stifle innovation and will stifle growth,’ at what cost?” he asked.

This article first appeared on North Carolina Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The U.S. Court of Appeals this week dismissed a chemical company’s claim that the health advisory the Environmental Protection Agency issued in June 2022 for certain man-made chemicals found in drinking water was “unlawful and should be vacated.”

The 3rd Circuit three-judge panel in Philadelphia heard the argument Jan. 31 and filed its opinion Tuesday.

Chemours Co., which has a facility near Fayetteville, cited a section of the Safe Drinking Water Act that allows petitions for review of “any … final action of the Administrator under this chapter,” according to the ruling.

“Contending that the advisory was unlawful, the Chemours Company petitioned for review of EPA’s action. We will dismiss the petition for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because the health advisory is not a final agency action,” the judges found.

The EPA estimates that there are thousands of different per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, chemicals used in a range of products like home goods and in manufacturing. PFAS have been detected in surface water, groundwater, rainwater and drinking water. Exposure to some of these widely used, long-lasting synthetic chemicals may be toxic to humans.

“This decision supports the very important Safe Drinking Water Act health advisory program,” EPA press secretary Remmington Belford told Coastal Review Wednesday about the ruling.

The Center for Environmental Health, Cape Fear River Watch, Clean Cape Fear, Democracy Green, North Carolina Black Alliance, Toxic Free North Carolina, Natural Resources Defense Council and five residents intervened a month after Chemours filed the petition for review in July 2022. Officials with the groups released an announcement Tuesday applauding the court’s decision.

“Through the years, our community has learned that when companies like Chemours are not actively hiding the science, they are usually attacking it. This is a win for public health and every resident harmed by GenX exposures. The courts got it right this time,” Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear said Tuesday in a release.

“We were hopeful and cautiously optimistic; however, we’ve also seen a shift in court rulings recently that have not been friendly to environmental protections and public health. Yesterday’s verdict was refreshing,” she said in an interview Wednesday.

“We believe this ruling is significant for private well owners in the region dealing with Chemours-specific PFAS contamination,” Donovan continued, adding that DEQ adopted the EPA’s GenX health advisory when it came out in 2022 and the ruling Tuesday means DEQ can keep moving forward and require Chemours to provide remedies to private well owners who have levels of GenX exceeding 10 parts per trillion. Historically it was 140 ppt.

“DEQ has made addressing PFAS a priority and will continue to rely on science-based, peer-reviewed health standards to protect human health in North Carolina while implementing the Maximum Contaminant Levels set by EPA and pursuing state-level surface water and groundwater standards for PFAS compounds, including GenX,” NCDEQ Deputy Communications Director Josh Kastrinsky said Wednesday.

“The Court strongly and unanimously rejected Chemours’s attempt to kill EPA’s scientific guidance on how communities can protect themselves from toxic GenX contamination in tap water,” said Sarah Tallman, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Everyone has a right to turn on their kitchen tap and have safe water, so we will continue to fight the chemical industry and others who try to block efforts to protect our health from toxic hazards.”

Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent said in the release that Chemours fought this health advisory level “for the same motivation behind all their actions: money. While the court did not acknowledge their smokescreen, we are grateful they rejected Chemours’ nefarious claim.”

Chemours said the ruling was merely a procedural loss.

“While we are disappointed with the Third Circuit’s dismissal of our appeal on procedural grounds, the decision means the U.S. EPA’s health advisory on HFPO-Dimer Acid (HFPO-DA) is not enforceable,” Chemours Representative Cassie Olszewski told Coastal Review Wednesday.

“Chemours has challenged — along with groups of drinking water providers and manufacturers — the EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Limits (MCL) for drinking water which utilize, in part, the same scientifically unsound analysis. We look forward to having the D.C. Circuit consider the merits of our arguments in connection with our pending challenge to the EPA’s MCL regulation,” Olszewski said.

Leading up to the judges’ decision

After news reports in June 2017 that several types of PFAS had been detected in the Cape Fear River, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality identified Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility as the source.

Cape Fear River watch sued both the Department of Environmental Quality and Chemours, resulting in a consent order that has allowed the company to continue operating since February 2019. Since then, both the EPA and DEQ say they have been taking steps to address PFAS.

“Drinking water health advisory levels are non-regulatory health-based values that are provided for informational purposes,” according to the EPA. “On June 15, 2022, the EPA published final drinking water health advisories (HAs) for perfluorobutane sulfonic acid and its potassium salt (PFBS) and hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA) and its ammonium salt (‘GenX chemicals’).”

The final health advisory values were based on the final EPA toxicity assessments published in 2021, the agency said.

Chemours uses HFPO-DA as a “patented polymerization aid in the manufacture of fluoropolymers,” the trade name for which is GenX, according to the company.

Chemours filed the petition for review in July 2022, saying the health advisory was arbitrary and capricious and that it was otherwise inconsistent with the law, because EPA incorporated grossly incorrect and overstated exposure assumptions―in essence, EPA used the wrong chemical when making its exposure assumptions, thereby resulting in a significantly less tolerant health advisory for HFPO Dimer Acid than is warranted by the data,” according to the petition.

The 3^rd Circuit found that Congress enacted the Safe Water Drinking Act to protect drinking water quality, and authorizes the EPA administrator to address contaminants in waters by taking various actions, such as putting a regulation in place or issue health advisories.

Once EPA officials have the final toxicity assessment, exposure factors and relative source contribution, the federal agency can then publish a health advisory “to inform decisionmakers of what it deems is a safe level of the contaminant in drinking water.”

In this instance, the EPA developed a health advisory. Advisories are not regulations, but “provide information’ about a safe level of a contaminant so that government officials and managers of public water systems can ‘determine whether actions are needed to address the presence of [the] contaminant in drinking water,’” the court found.

In August 2022, the nonprofit organizations and five residents intervened in the case.

The Center for Environmental Health represented Cape Fear River Basin community groups and individuals who have relied on the advisory to fight for health protective drinking water, Senior Legislative Counsel Tom Fox said in a release.

“The Third Circuit correctly found that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction because the GenX health advisory is not a final agency action. The court rejected Chemours’ attempts to convert the advisory into a reviewable action with examples of indirect consequences of the health advisory,” Fox said.

Donovan told Coastal Review Wednesday that Clean Cape Fear intervened because ‘We wanted the courts to see that the American people — especially those of us living in North Carolina, are hungry for strong enforceable protections the Biden/Harris EPA is implementing regarding PFAS. Chemours publicly claims GenX is safe but the best available science disagrees. We’re tired of Chemours attacking the EPA when it actually begins to do its job and serve the people.”

What’s next?

Chemours filed in June a similar petition for review in the Washington, D.C., circuit after the EPA issued in April the final National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for six PFAS, including perfluorobutane sulfonic acid and its potassium salt, or PFBS, and GenX chemicals, specifically, HFPO-DA.

“EPA expects that over many years the final rule will prevent PFAS exposure in drinking water for approximately 100 million people, prevent thousands of deaths, and reduce tens of thousands of serious PFAS-attributable illnesses,” the agency said in April. The drinking water regulation established legally enforceable levels for several PFAS.

Donovan noted Wednesday that Clean Cape Fear had learned Tuesday that the group was granted the ability to intervene in defense of EPA’s PFAS drinking water standards.

“Chemours, the American Chemistry Council and other groups sued the EPA earlier this year when the first-ever federal drinking water standards for PFAS were finalized. We joined forces with EarthJustice and other contaminated community groups across the nation to intervene in that lawsuit, as well,” she said.

North Carolina’s coast will see more than $50 million in funding for drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure projects, with $40 million of that going to the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority.

The State Water Infrastructure Authority approved awards for 70 projects in 30 counties Tuesday during its meeting. The authority is an independent body with primary responsibility for awarding federal and state funding for water infrastructure projects.

“Strong water and wastewater systems are vital for safe drinking water and economic development,” Cooper said in a statement. “Thanks to federal funding from the Biden-Harris Administration and state appropriations we’ve made historic investments to rebuild and replace aging systems, especially in rural communities, which will make our state stronger.”

The 70 projects were chosen out of the 221 eligible applications from 65 counties, requesting $2.64 billion. A list of all projects is available on the Department of Environmental Quality website.     

“Replacing aging infrastructure and adding the capacity to remove forever chemicals from drinking water benefits the health and pocketbooks of North Carolinians,” said DEQ Secretary Elizabeth S. Biser. “Funding these projects supports the future success of communities across our state.”

The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority provides drinking water for the Wilmington area and New Hanover County.

Public Information Officer Cammie Bellamy explained Thursday that $35 million in low-interest loans will support replacing the authority’s Southside Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The plant was built in 1972 and parts of its infrastructure are nearing the end of their useful life. The replacement and expansion of this facility is the largest capital project in CFPUA’s history, with construction costs estimated at $250 million. This is the third low-interest loan the utility has been approved for through the state. The project was awarded $35 million this winter and $35 million in the summer of 2023.

The $5 million in grants and loans from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Drinking Water State Revolving Fund will go to the state’s galvanized service line replacement project, Bellamy continued.

Under the Environmental Protection Agency’s revised lead and copper rule, all water systems in the United States are required to complete a survey of water service lines in their systems by October.

“This is to determine whether there are any lead service lines across their systems. CFPUA’s survey has been underway since 2020, and while we have not found any lead service lines we have found a few hundred older galvanized service lines. CFPUA is replacing all of these galvanized lines as part of this project,” Bellamy said.

“We are very grateful to the State Water Infrastructure Authority for this funding, which will allow CFPUA to advance these critical projects while saving our customers money,” she added.

The town of Hertford will receive $3 million for a wastewater treatment plant rehabilitation project.

Gates County, designated as distressed, will receive $1.3 million for the Buckland School Wastewater Improvements Project, $2.81 million for the Cooper School Wastewater Improvements Project, and $233,000 for an asset inventory and assessment.

Asset inventory and assessment grants from the Viable Utility Reserve are considered a vital step in planning and inventorying that can lead towns on a path to future viability, according to the state.

Other coastal local government units designated as distressed that were selected for asset inventory and assessment grants include the town of Creswell, which will receive $325,000, and the Swan Quarter Sanitary District, which will receive $250,000.

Another Hyde County community, Fairfield, will receive $3.6 million for drainage ditch improvements.

Jacksonville will receive $2.27 million that will go to equipment for its public utilities complex.

The city of Washington will receive $460,000 to perform a lead service line inventory.

The awards also include funding to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, for local government units in Goldsboro, Lenoir County, Orange County and Rocky Mount.

The application period for fall funding for drinking water, wastewater, lead service line and emerging contaminants projects opens July 30 and ends at 5 p.m. Sept. 30.

There will be five, in-person training sessions in the coming weeks, with the closest to the coast being Aug. 8 in Kinston. The meeting in Raleigh Aug. 9 will be live streamed. Visit the the division website for registration information and other locations.

Members of the commission charged with adopting rules to protect the state’s air and water resources voted this week to pursue health-based standards for only three PFAS prevalent in North Carolina drinking water sources.

The Environmental Management Commission’s groundwater and waste management committee Wednesday afternoon declined to recommend to the full commission all eight per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances included in proposed rules set forth by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ.

The commission’s water quality committee also voted Wednesday to defer a motion to send the surface water rule package on all eight PFAS to the commission for action in its full meeting on Thursday.

The decisions of both committees this week further delay the rulemaking process for the chemical compounds, two of which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified as likely carcinogens.

The earliest the full commission could take action on each committees’ recommendations is at its next meeting in September. The commission can either accept the groundwater committee’s recommendation or put a public notice of standards for all eight PFAS.

The committees’ votes this week frustrated proponents, residents, DEQ officials and some commissioners.

But others on the commission continue to defend their decisions, with those on the water quality committee arguing that they need more time to review revisions to a fiscal analysis associated with the proposed surface water standards.

Groundwater and waste management committee Chair Joe Reardon said that the members on Wednesday agreed to recommend groundwater health standards for the three PFAS because two – PFOA and PFOS – have been identified by the federal government as likely carcinogens. The third, GenX, which had been discharged into the Cape Fear River directly from Chemours’ Fayetteville Works Facility, was included he said, “because obviously the citizens of this state have struggled with (it).”

The committee agreed not to advance PFBS, PFNA, PFHxS, PFBA and PFHxA.

“The science is evolving in this dynamic and I believe the work of this committee was respectful and very pragmatic,” Reardon said.

Groundwater standards would be used to limit permitted releases of PFAS to groundwater, set the health threshold for providing alternative water supplies to residents whose drinking water exceeds contamination limits, and used to establish goals for cleaning contamination in groundwater.

Commissioner Marion Deerhake was one of two water quality committee members who voted Wednesday to recommend the commission take action on the proposed health-based standards for surface water. Fish consumption also is taken into consideration of surface water standards.

She cautioned fellow committee members during their meeting Wednesday against delaying a vote.

Commissioner and Water Allocation Committee Vice-Chair Robin Smith and Thursday during the full commission meeting that she was disappointed in the groundwater committee’s discussion and decision.

“I sat through the entire (groundwater) committee meeting and didn’t hear any substantive flaw identified in the calculation of those standards,” Smith said. “There was no contradiction of the bottom-line conclusion of the regulatory impact analysis. The adoption of all eight standards would impose no new cost on the state, or the citizens of the state, and, to the contrary, would actually reduce regulatory burden. If we can’t adopt standards in that set of circumstances it is hopeless to consider adopting standards in the much more common circumstance we’re going to be looking at in the surface water standards where there are going to be costs.”

DEQ Assistant Secretary Sushma Masemore asked water quality committee members at their meeting Wednesday to consider three points: whether or not the public accepts the science behind the health impacts of the eight compounds; the presence of the eight PFAS in drinking water sources in the state; and how the state wants to protect public health.

“We’re not saying thousands of PFAS out there, but these eight specific chemicals for which multiple federal agencies, credible academia, scientists and experts around the country and the world have put together in their consensus documentations and peer reviewed reports,” Masemore said. “We’ve shown in the many presentations, data, monitoring information, not only from us, but also third party, the permittees, that shows the presence of these PFAS at different levels. And we have articulated here, the best way to acknowledge the cost and the impact to the regulated community, because in the absence of that, the ratepayers, the everyday North Carolinian is going to have to pay for that to clean up that drinking water. They may have to pay for that through their health outcomes over a lifetime.”

The department estimates the tap water of some 3.4 million residents comes from systems that contain at least one compound exceeding new federal contamination limits on several PFAS.

More than 300 municipal and small water systems in North Carolina sampled in 2022 had PFAS detections above newly established federal maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs. Utilities that have drinking water contaminated with PFAS exceeding the MCLs have five years to integrate technology to bring them into compliance.

The costs associated with upgrading systems are by and large getting passed down to customers.

DEQ officials have been discussing proposed health standards with the commission since last November.

In April, the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce asked DEQ to postpone its pursuit of surface and groundwater standards for PFAS, arguing that further research is needed to understand the economic impacts of the proposed regulations.

Commission members continue to be accused of stalling the rulemaking process in order to protect industry.

During a virtual press conference hosted Tuesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, speakers, including residents, business owners and elected officials in the lower Cape Fear region, reiterated those claims.

“The EMC’s mandate is to protect, preserve and enhance the state’s air and water resources and it’s time for them to fulfill this responsibility,” Wilmington City Councilwoman Salette Andrews said Tuesday. “I predict they will once again fail to act in the best interest of North Carolinians. The EMC should work for the people, not the Chamber of Commerce. The chamber has its own lobbyists and doesn’t need to commission in order to do their bidding.”

Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent specifically called out newer commission members appointed last year by the Republican-controlled legislature, saying those members “have made it clear that they care more about the cost to heavy industry and the Chamber of Commerce’s values, which are also heavy industry.”

“They’re waiting for the Clean Water Act to be basically opened up by potentially a new EPA,” she said, referring to the November presidential election.

Cori Bell, a NRDC senior attorney for environmental health, said the commission has had months to ask questions of DEQ.

“There have been multiple opportunities to get more information and I don’t think that it’s a lack of information and DEC has also said publicly that it’s not a lack of information on the financial analysis here,” Bell said. “It’s really, I think, a result of chamber pressure and outside pressure.”

Commission Chair J.D. Solomon assured commission members at the close of their Thursday meeting that they’re going to “work this thing down the middle.”

“This is a long game,” he said. “We made some progress yesterday. We just have to find the balance.”

North Carolina Environmental Management Commission members are to continue their discussion on regulating toxins in the air and water during the commission’s meeting this month.

Commission committees are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday, July 10. Agenda items include the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s proposed groundwater and surface water standards for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and a semi-annual progress report on 1,4 dioxane in the Cape Fear River Basin.

At the full commission meeting set for 9 a.m. Thursday, July 11, members are to consider moving forward in the rulemaking process to revise ambient air quality standards and the periodic review of administering the dry cleaning solvent cleanup fund.

Meetings will take place in the Archdale Building in Raleigh and be streamed online. Webinar information, including the link, and meeting agendas and materials are on the website.

This commission oversees and adopts rules for several divisions of the Department of Environmental Quality, including the Divisions of Air Quality, Land Resources, Waste Management and Water Resources.

This week seven years ago, residents in the Cape Fear region learned that their drinking water supply was contaminated with GenX, a type of PFAS being released into the river by the Chemours facility, a DuPont spinoff near Fayetteville.

In the time since, the state has taken steps to manage per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also called emerging compounds, which have been linked to health effects in humans and animals.

To highlight these ongoing efforts, Gov. Roy Cooper’s office has proclaimed June 3-7 as PFAS Awareness Week.

“North Carolinians deserve clean water and we must be at the forefront of the fight to contain forever chemicals,” Cooper said Friday. “We are holding polluters accountable, researching solutions, and working hard to protect people’s health.”

PFAS is a group of human-made chemicals that has been used for decades in commercial and consumer products such as food packaging, water- and stain-repellent fabrics, nonstick products and firefighting foams, as well as industrial processes and manufacturing.

These pervasive compounds detected in household and industrial waste, air emissions and wastewater discharges are often called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment and can build up in humans and animals.

North Carolina’s departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services began investigating GenX, when Wilmington StarNews broke the story June 7, 2017, that N.C. State University researchers discovered the chemicals int he Cape Fear River basin. The state’s investigation identified the Chemours Fayetteville Works facility as the producer of GenX.

In 2019, the state, Chemours, and the nonprofit Cape Fear River Watch signed a consent order requiring Chemours to address PFAS sources and contamination at the facility to prevent further impacts to air, soil, groundwater and surface water.

NCDEQ ordered significant additional actions by Chemours to prevent PFAS pollution from entering the Cape Fear River in the Addendum to the Consent Order released in August 2020.

On Nov. 3, 2021, the state determined that Chemours was responsible for contamination of groundwater monitoring wells and water supply wells in New Hanover County and potentially Pender, Columbus, and Brunswick counties, and expanded the consent order to include these downstream communities.

On March 28, 2022, NCDEQ required Chemours expand the sampling and drinking water plan.

NCDEQ released its action strategy June 7, 2022, to address PFAS and on June 7, 2023, updated the plan to fund remediation efforts for eligible residents with PFAS contamination.

The Biden-Harris Administration announced in April the first-ever national limit on PFAS in drinking water.

“Based on all available data, more than 300 water systems in our state have PFAS levels that will exceed the new standards. That includes 42 municipal water systems serving nearly 3 million residents combined, as well as approximately 20% of small public water systems tested,” according to the state.

Cooper’s office notes in the press release that his 2024 budget proposal includes a $100 million fund to help communities clean their water from pollutants such as PFAS.

Related: Totals on PFAS-contaminated utilities ‘coming down daily’

In early May, NCDEQ requested the Environmental Management Commission begin rulemaking on PFAS groundwater and surface water standards, which would limit the amount of PFAS that companies can discharge. This commission adopts rules for “protection, preservation, and enhancement of the water and air resources of the State.”

Reducing discharges of PFAS into North Carolina’s state water supplies is the most cost-effective way to meet the new drinking water standards, according to the state.

“Despite these calls to begin regulating PFAS, the EMC has stalled efforts amid lobbying by the NC Chamber of Commerce, whose members include chemical companies,” the governor’s office said. “Republican legislators seized control of the EMC in 2023 through legislation it passed over the Governor’s veto that continues to be litigated in the courts. The EMC’s move to delay anti-pollution rules intended to protect drinking water from PFAS contamination mirrored lobbying from the NC Chamber on behalf of its members. Recent reporting shows that members of the EMC own stock in companies that belong to the Chamber and lobbied to oppose PFAS regulation.”

The number of North Carolinians whose tap water comes from systems that contain at least one chemical compound exceeding new federal contamination limits is “coming down daily,” according to a state environmental official.

Rebecca Sadosky, N.C. Drinking Water Protection Program coordinator, told members of the state Environmental Management Commission Thursday that the numbers — an estimated 3.4 million people — will continue to slide as drinking water suppliers across the state upgrade their systems with technologies that remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

Thursday was the first time the commission has convened since North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Elizabeth Biser sent a letter to its members expressing her disappointment that the agency’s proposed groundwater standards for PFAS would not be put to a vote in July.

In the May 1 letter, Biser stated that the chair and vice chair of the commission’s groundwater and waste management committee were “refusing to hear the proposed groundwater standards for PFAS as an action item” at their Wednesday meeting.

Members of that committee denied that accusation, saying that the decision was made to push back a vote on the standards so members could first review at least a draft of the fiscal analysis that would explain anticipated costs associated with the proposal.

Commission Chair John Solomon kicked off Thursday’s meeting with a pep talk of sorts, telling fellow commissioners that they need to get to know one another, break barriers and “really, really support each other to make good deliberation and good decisions.”

“We have got some big decisions to continue make,” he said. “We’re going to regulated 1,4-dioxane. We’re going to regulate PFAS. I think we’re getting there. I think as a body y’all are coming together, but again, continue to work together as I’ve seen some of you doing in the past week.”

During the groundwater and waste management committee meeting, held the day before the commission’s meeting, committee Chair Joe Reardon and Vice Chair Tim Baumgartner defended the decision to wait for a fiscal analysis and hit back at Biser, saying DEQ chose to “grandstand” by issuing public statements that leveraged accusations at the committee instead of working through the issues with the committee.

DEQ showed commission members a “lack of respect,” Baumgartner said Wednesday. “This committee and commission deserved a right to review a full package before any consideration to move forward on these rules.”

He went on to say that agency officials had indicated last November that the Division of Waste Management was working on a fiscal note at that time. Yet, he said, the committee had not received a draft fiscal note to review. He cited Administrative Procedures Act requirement in his remarks.

“During all DEQ’s grandstanding DEQ did not provide this committee nor the EMC with a complete set of documents two weeks prior to the meeting, which is currently EMC policy,” Baumgartner said. “This persistent disregard for this committee stops today. All documents and any requests before this committee will be provided for this committee no later than two weeks prior to the scheduled meeting date or that item will be removed from the agenda. This public we serve deserves a solid rulemaking process that complies fully with APA, that is completely reviewed and conforms with the statutes and rules. This commission cannot do that if DEQ intends to work against us, withholding documents and grandstanding instead of engaging.”

Reardon said the committee’s decision to remove PFAS from its Wednesday agenda was to give the committee time to have access to “all the materials at one time.”

“The decision to remove this from the agenda was solely based on that all the materials required for rules to be adopted, including the fiscal note, was not provided to us in a timely manner,” he said.

Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent, in a news release Thursday, thanked Biser for her letter to the committee.

“The environmental management commission’s mission is to adopt rules for the “protection, preservation, and enhancement of the state’s air and water resources,” Sargent wrote. “If the new EMC members don’t understand their mission, they should stand down.”

The spat comes a month after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it had set maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs, on several PFAS.

The new federal regulation means hundreds of water systems will have to routinely monitor for PFAS and report the results of that monitoring to their customers.

Utilities that have drinking water contaminated with PFAS exceeding the MCLs have five years to integrate technology that will bring them into compliance. More than 300 municipal and small water systems sampled in 2022 had PFAS detections above the newly established MCLs, according to DEQ.

Sadosky walked the EMC on Thursday through that timeline, one that requires systems to submit water samples to EPA-certified labs for testing beginning June 25.

North Carolina currently does not have any EPA-certified labs to test for PFAS. Sadosky said the state is waiting for guidance from the EPA on where samples may be sent this summer.

The new federal drinking water standard is expected to put a hefty price tag on utilities. The federal government is funneling billions to assist with costs associated with the measure.

The state needs surface water and groundwater standards because PFAS gets discharged into those sources and ultimately into drinking water intakes and public water supply wells, “driving up the costs for public water systems to come into compliance with the new federal drinking water standards, which has a direct impact on out-of-pocket costs for North Carolinians,” Biser said in her May 1 letter.

EPA does not establish surface water and groundwater standards.

The state’s top environmental official is urging action by the commission responsible for setting rules to protect the state’s air and water quality that would put in place stricter groundwater standards for PFAS contamination.

North Carolina’s leading business advocacy organization agrees with the Environmental Management Commission’s expected move this week to slow the rulemaking process.

In a letter from North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Elizabeth Biser dated May 1, Biser says she “was deeply disappointed to learn” that the Environmental Management Commission‘s groundwater and waste management committee chair and vice-chair, Joe Reardon and Tim Baumgartner, respectively, “are refusing to hear the proposed groundwater standards for PFAS as an action item” during the committee meeting this week. She noted that the committee was “asking for yet another informational presentation on this topic.”

The meeting is scheduled for 10:15 a.m. Wednesday, part of a full day of committee meetings. The entire commission is scheduled to meet Thursday. All meetings are to be held in the Archdale building in Raleigh. More information about how to join the meetings online, the full agenda and accompanying documents can be found on the commission website.

“As you know, on April 10, 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency announced the final National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for six PFAS compounds. In our state, more than 300 public water systems serving more than 3 million North Carolinians have PFAS levels above the Maximum Contaminant Levels, or MCLs,” Biser wrote.

An NCDEQ representative told Coastal Review Thursday that the committee chair requested during a recent phone call to the staff to have the rulemaking standards be an informational presentation instead of an action item at the meeting.

Biser’s letter to the commission was announced Thursday along with her response to a letter from the North Carolina Chamber president dated April 22 and asking for more research on how the EPA’s rules intersect with proposed state rules, as well as an estimate of the costs to comply.

“Surface and groundwater standards ensure that industries that put PFAS into the environment do their fair share to reduce ongoing pollution so that residents don’t bear the entire costs of removing PFAS from their drinking water,” Biser told Coastal Review Monday.

The letters from Biser are to “dispel misinformation and urge action as DEQ works to address PFAS contamination and protect the public health and financial well-being of North Carolinians,” DEQ officials said.

NC Chamber Vice President of Communications Kate Payne said Friday in response to the letter that the organization “has a transparent and open process to engage government when advocating for certainty and predictability for North Carolina’s business community, particularly on the regulatory front.”

The business community is made up of the people who live in communities across the state. “These people, and these businesses, pay the bills and enjoy the clean air and water with their families,” Payne said.

“We all want a healthy environment that balances economic growth. Petitioning our government for that certainty and predictability and attempting to better understand the costs we will pay should never be categorized as misinformation,” Payne said.

Biser, in her letter to the commission, asks that the groundwater and waste management committee “reconsider and hear the action item in May and let us begin this rulemaking process that will protect the health and financial well-being of North Carolinians.”

Biser contends in her letter that the EPA regulates drinking water systems under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, but it’s the state’s responsibility to address the discharges to the surface water and groundwater that is used for drinking water, which is why NCDEQ is proposing the state groundwater and surface water standards.

“Source reduction is the most cost-effective way to help water systems meet the drinking water standards. The amount of PFAS in the drinking water supply directly impacts the operation and maintenance costs of water treatment. Absent groundwater and surface water standards for PFAS, ratepayers will foot the entire cost of removing PFAS from their drinking water,” she writes.

Biser continues that NCDEQ staff presented the proposed standards at the last three meetings of both the full commission and its committees.

“In November, Assistant Secretary Sushma Masemore walked through the data we have collected across the state and the need for these actions. In January, our staff again previewed the standards as well as the method of cost-benefit analysis we are using for the fiscal note. And in March, staff again updated you on the progress and the stakeholder meetings we’ve held on these proposed standards,” writes Biser.

Scheduling an action item at the committee level during the May meeting would include presentation of enough information for the members to understand the fiscal impact of the proposed groundwater rule as reviewed by the Office of State Budget and Management, Biser continues.

If the committee decided to vote on the standards at its May 8 meeting, it would go before the full commission as an action item during the July meeting. Another presentation would follow as part of the action item.

“When combined with the multiple presentations you have already heard, that is ample time to consider moving the proposed groundwater standards to the public comment and hearing process,” Biser wrote.

NC Chamber President and CEO Gary Salamido writes in his April 22 letter to NCDEQ that the organization is asking for more time to better understand how the proposed impacts will affect local governments and businesses.

“It is important that we do not hastily pass regulations without fully accounting for both the positive benefits and potential negative impacts proposed rules would have on the state and its business community,” Salamido writes. “On behalf of the business community, we urge NC DEQ and the NC Environmental Management Commission to delay any action until we receive appropriate studies and have greater clarity on the benefits and cost of regulation.”

Biser explains in her response that NCDEQ’s proposed rulemaking is necessary to reduce PFAS contamination in the state’s drinking water sources. Additionally, state surface and groundwater standards work in conjunction with the federal drinking water standards issued April 10 by the EPA.  

Biser writes that the EPA does not establish surface water and groundwater standards. Rather, but expects the states to address surface water and groundwater standards, especially once a federal drinking water standard is finalized. She provides a diagram to show how the EPA requirements and proposed state regulations intersect.

“Discharges into surface water and groundwater directly impact drinking water intakes and public water supply wells, driving up the costs for public water systems to come into compliance with the new federal drinking water standards, which has a direct impact on out-of-pocket costs for North Carolinians,” she writes.

Biser reiterates to the chamber that without having these rules in place, the cost to comply with the EPA’s drinking standards fall on the customer. More than 8,500 homes in eight counties have been provided alternate drinking water supplies as a direct result of the Chemours consent order.

“Additionally, the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA) has spent $46 million, and Brunswick County has spent over $100 million to address Chemours-related PFAS in their systems,” Biser writes. “These costs, compounded by annual operating and maintenance costs, have had a direct impact on ratepayers — which include members of the business community — who are now having to pay more to treat contamination that they did not cause.”

While the damage to public health, the environment and the economy was caused by a single manufacturing facility, NCDEQ is aware of PFAS pollution throughout the state, according to the letter.

Without taking action on the proposed rulemaking, “the entire burden of complying with the new drinking water standards will fall to public water system customers,” Biser writes, adding that the cost to remove PFAS is much lower at the source than it is at the drinking water system level.

“The key question at hand is whether everyday North Carolinians should bear the entire burden of cleaning up PFAS contamination (while also dealing with the health impacts), or whether businesses releasing PFAS into the environment should also bear responsibility,” Biser writes.

WILMINGTON – President Joe Biden announced Thursday afternoon millions of federal dollars coming to North Carolina to replace lead drinking water service lines.

“These lead lines are tough, durable, and they don’t rust, but we’ve long since learned that they lead to poisonous toxins in our water. The science is clear, lead service lines pose severe health risks, damaging the brain and kidneys, to children especially, they stunt growth and learning and cause lasting brain damage. We know we can stop it. We know how to do it,” Biden said.

Biden’s remarks to an invitation-only crowd in the Wilmington Convention Center were met with applause, cheers and shouts of affirmation from audience members yelling “That’s right” and “Yes!”

Across the country, nine million lead service lines connect water mains to homes, schools, daycare centers and businesses, he said. There are some 300,000 of these lead pipes disbursing drinking water in North Carolina.

“The cost to replace them is consequential,” Biden said. “Too many families only learn the threat to their children after they get sick. You know, this is, for some time, why I’m determined to fix it. Until the United States of America, God love us, deals with this, how can we say we’re a leading nation of the world for God’s sake. There’s no safe level of lead exposure.”

The only way to connect all Americans to clean water is to replace every lead service line, he said.

Biden talked about his landmark Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, one where a record $15 billion has been dedicated to fund lead pipe replacement.

“Today we’re releasing a third installment of that funding, an additional $3 billion dollars nationwide, which will bring the total to $250 million to North Carolina so far,” he said.

The president said the issue is not only one of safety, but about basic fairness to communities across the country. Nearly half of the funding has been directed to disadvantaged communities that have “borne the brunt of lead poisoning,” he said, adding that tribal lands are also receiving funds.

“Studies show communities of color have been hardest hit,” Biden said. “We have to make things right. Clean water, healthier communities, peace of mind, and jobs befitting those communities, jobs of plumbers, pipe fitters, laborers, engineers. Good paying jobs you can make a serious living with without a college degree to raise a family on.”

Protecting people from lead contamination is just one of the nation’s most ambitious agendas, he said.

The federal government is funneling $9 billion to upgrade filtration systems of public water systems found to have elevated levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

“They’re very dangerous chemicals that shouldn’t be in our water supply,” Biden said.

Wilmington has become ground-zero for PFAS contamination after scientists discovered several years ago a number of these chemical compounds in the Cape Fear River, the drinking water source for tens of thousands in the region.

Biden touted his infrastructure law as the most significant investment in the nation’s roads, bridges, ports, airports and public transportation, including passenger rail from Raleigh to Richmond, Virginia.

More than 50,000 projects in more than 4,000 communities have been announced to receive funding.

“To date this has dedicated over $9 billion dollars to North Carolina alone,” Biden said.

As his roughly 20-minute address neared its end, Biden spoke more like an incumbent on a campaign trail, touching on everything from job growth and rising wages to lower prescription drug costs, and taking verbal shots at his Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump.

Biden chastised the Republicans who voted against the infrastructure law, narrowing in on Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., whom the president said called the infrastructure law fatally flawed and “a liberal trojan horse for the socialist agenda.”

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t think ensuring kids can drink clean water to avoid brain damage is a socialist agenda,” Biden said. “You may recall that my predecessor promised infrastructure every single week for four years. Didn’t build a damn thing.”

Instead, he said, the Trump administration rolled back wetland protections, gave mining companies leeway to contaminate groundwater and slashed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s budget.

Biden promised to “be a president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not.”

“I believe doing what’s always worked best for this country, investing in all Americans.” He said. “I’ve never been more optimistic about our nation’s future. Let’s get out and work together and get this done and may God bless you all and protect our troops.”

Wilmington was Biden’s second and final stop in North Carolina Thursday.

He opened his remarks in the Port City by naming the four law enforcement officers killed Monday in a shootout in a Charlotte neighborhood, asking for prayers for the victims’ loved ones.

Biden visited privately with families of the victims in Charlotte before boarding Air Force One and heading to the coast.

He was accompanied by EPA Administrator and former North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Michael Regan and Gov. Roy Cooper, both of whom took the podium before a standing-room only crowd anxious to see the president.

Seats for the invitation-only event were filled two hours before Biden’s arrival, prompting event volunteers to fill any open spaces with chairs inside a room of makeshift walls of blue fabric.

Erin Carey, acting director of the North Carolina chapter of Sierra Club, was among the crowd invited to attend the event.

“We are grateful to the Biden administration for their determination to bring about the bipartisan infrastructure bill, an effort that has brought significant advancements in water quality initiatives, giving communities hope that the fear of drinking water contamination might one day be in the past,” she said in an email following the event. “It is comforting to know that our leaders are prioritizing the health of children and families, as well as the environment, as they put our tax dollars to good use – removing lead pipes from our service lines and PFAS from our drinking water.”

A group of pro-Palestinian protestors were gathered about a block away from the convention center shouting, “Free, free, free Palestine” and waving Palestinian flags. Trump supporters also showed their support for the former president.

Biden’s remarks Thursday afternoon came on the heels of a number of new federal environmental regulatory rollouts announced in recent weeks, including enforceable limits on PFAS in public water systems, a ban on most uses of methylene chloride, and a suite of rules addressing pollution from fossil-fueled power plants.

The day before Biden’s visit, NCDEQ announced a new state-implemented human health risk assessment for 1,4-dioxane in drinking water.

The health risk assessment was directed by the North Carolina General Assembly last year to examine the risk of exposure to the chemical, which is used primarily as a solvent in manufacturing processes, in drinking water. There are currently no federal drinking water standards for 1,4-dioxane.

North Carolina has the third highest measured concentration of 1,4-dioxane in drinking water in the country, exposing residents in the state to concentrations of the chemical that may be more than double the national average in drinking water and as much as four times the average in surface and groundwater, according to DEQ.

The Cape Fear River Basin has been found to have the most detections of the chemical in the state.

The EPA, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and International Agency for Research on Cancer classify 1,4-dioxane as a likely carcinogen.

Earlier Thursday, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, or CFPUA announced it is close to wrapping up an inventory of its 70,000 water service lines. None of the lines checked so far are made of lead, according to the authority.

The utility will forward its inventory check to state regulators by mid-October.

DEQ recently tapped the utility to receive $4.16 million in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, money that will be used to replace about 300 galvanized service lines believed to have lead connectors.

These lines and connectors are coated to prevent lead from getting into drinking water.

Gov. Roy Cooper has proposed around $150 million to go toward conservation and resiliency, with $20 million of that for grants to improve draining and reduce flooding, in the recommended budget his office released released last week.

The $34.5 billion proposed budget, “Securing North Carolina’s Future” for fiscal 2025 announced April 24 recommends investing more than $148 million in land and water resources conservation and resilience to natural disasters, according to the 223-page summary of the suggested budget. The focus of the budget is education with with a proposed $1 billion investment in the state’s public school system.

“This budget is an opportunity to build on our state’s momentum and make up ground in areas like public education, quality child care and clean drinking water, where legislators have fallen short,” Cooper said in a statement. “As the number one state to do business in the country for two years in a row, we have the formula for success in our high-quality public schools, talented workforce and thriving economy. We must make targeted investments strengthening public education, boosting economic development, and protecting our natural resources to secure a bright future for North Carolina.”

The $148 million to conserve land and water resources and build resilience will “promote land conservation through tax credits, reinforce ongoing efforts to preserve the state’s natural and working lands, and aim to mitigate future damages from storms, flooding, and wildfires,” according to his office.

One line item specific to Carteret County is the $50 million for infrastructure improvements at Radio Island as a way “to support economic development at the site.”

To address emerging compounds, Cooper proposes $100 million for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to help communities with new federal drinking water per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, standards and address gaps in available federal funding for PFAS remediation.

Highlights of the conservation and resiliency allocations include the following:

• $2 million recurring and $30 million nonrecurring to improve state parks, matching grants for local projects, and access to beaches and coastline.
• $2 million recurring and $30 million nonrecurring for projects that protect and restore the state’s land and water resources, preserve military buffers, restore degraded streams, and develop and improve stormwater treatment.
• $2.46 million in recurring to help the state preserve farmland through grants for conservation easements, farmland preservation plans, and agricultural development projects.
• $1 million nonrecurring to support agricultural water supply and efficiency increases for agricultural water use, with a focus on increasing assistance for on-farm water storage.
• $1 million recurring to expand sustainability and conservation efforts at the Department of Adult Correction, which manages more than 1,040 acres of natural lands and 54 correctional facilities.
• $20 million nonrecurring to support organizations working to reduce flooding through the restoration and maintenance of streams, waterways, and drainage infrastructure across the state.
• $5 million for the Coastal Resilient Roof Grant Program administered by the N.C. Insurance Underwriting Association to create storm-resistant houses by strengthening roofs against natural disasters.
• $5 million to strengthen an application for $68.5 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, and the Division of Coastal Management have partnered on the funding opportunity through NOAA for living shorelines, the Resilient Coastal Communities Program, stormwater improvements, and land conservation to protect against extreme weather in the 20 coastal counties.
• $5 million nonrecurring to enable the N.C. Forest Service to conduct prescribed fires and contain wildfires.
• $4 million to enhance the Flood Resiliency Blueprint with more data about impacts from storm surge and coastal flooding.
• $3 million in nonrecurring funds for grants that support nature-based projects.
• $300,000 nonrecurring to replace the trailers required for transporting mobile units designed to quickly depopulate swine following disease outbreaks, natural disasters, or other catastrophic events.
• A new conservation tax credit to support land conservation efforts.

Republicans have indicated willingness to consider some of Cooper’s proposals and expressed a desire to vote on a budget and adjourn before July.

Environmental Protection Agency officials have labeled two per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that people are most likely exposed to through drinking water as “hazardous substances” under the Superfund law.

The final rule designates perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, or PFOS, as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, or CERCLA, also known as Superfund.

PFAS are human-made chemicals linked to cancers, impacts to the liver and heart, and immune and developmental damage to infants and children, the agency said.

PFOA and PFOS meet the statutory criteria for designation as hazardous substances under CERCLA. This designation will allow the EPA to investigate and cleanup of these chemicals and ensure that leaks, spills, and other releases are reported, the agency announced Friday.

“Designating these chemicals under our Superfund authority will allow EPA to address more contaminated sites, take earlier action, and expedite cleanups, all while ensuring polluters pay for the costs to clean up pollution threatening the health of communities,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in a statement. Regan was North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality secretary from January 2017 until he joined the EPA in March 2021.

The EPA said the rule will be effective 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register.

In addition to the final rule, the EPA is issuing a separate enforcement discretion policy that details how the agency will hold responsible the entities that “significantly contributed to the release of PFAS contamination into the environment, including parties that have manufactured PFAS or used PFAS in the manufacturing process, federal facilities, and other industrial parties.”

Erik D. Olson, senior strategic director for health with the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, said in a statement that millions of families across the country are being exposed to toxic “forever chemicals” from living near contaminated sites that threaten their health.

“It is time for polluters to pay to clean up the toxic soup they’ve dumped into the environment,” he said. “We all learned in kindergarten that if we make a mess, we should clean it up. The Biden Administration’s Superfund rule is a big step in the right direction for holding polluters accountable for cleaning up decades of contamination.”  

Clean Cape Fear co-founder Emily Donovan said that since learning about extreme levels of PFAS in the Wilmington-area tap water, “we’ve been forced to live with water we don’t feel safe using while also enduring rate hikes to clean up a crisis we didn’t create. Chemical companies like DuPont and Chemours profited off of PFAS for decades at our expense. Finally, the Biden EPA is beginning to hold PFAS polluters accountable. While there is no price tag big enough to bring back all the lives cut short or traumatized by decades of PFAS exposures – this is a step in the right direction.”

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it has set federally enforceable limits on nearly a half-dozen individual PFAS in public water systems.

The historic move also limits any combination of two or more of four per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and starts the countdown for thousands of public water suppliers throughout the country to monitor for those chemicals and report their findings to their customers.

An estimated 6 to 10% of 66,000 drinking water systems throughout the country have three years to comply. In North Carolina, a combined more than 300 municipal and small water systems sampled in 2022 had PFAS detections above the newly established maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs, according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

Utilities that have drinking water contaminated with PFAS exceeding the MCLs will be given five years to integrate technology at their facilities to reduce the amounts of the chemical compounds flowing from their customers’ taps.

The EPA’s much-anticipated final rule was hailed as a first step by a host of North Carolina environmental and advocacy organizations that have been calling for federal and state regulators to ultimately clamp down on industries that release PFAS into the environment.

PFAS are a mixture of chemicals used in a host of consumer products from nonstick cookware and food packaging to stain resistant carpets, water repellant attire and makeup.

These chemicals have been found in a number of drinking water sources in North Carolina through contaminators including industrial manufacturers, landfills and firefighting facilities.

Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent said in a statement that while the organization applauds the EPA’s decision, the federal government has for nearly 30 years known about the health hazards of PFAS.

“And even now, they refuse to regulate the corporations directly by requiring them to stop the pollution at the source, but instead put the burden on utilities to either filter this dangerous filth, or do the government’s job to pressure companies to stop discharging it. So, while we thank the EPA for this work, we implore them and our legislators and environmental regulators to recognize that decades of their entities’ negligence, and support of corporate greed, has caused the illnesses and deaths of thousands of Americans and the degradation to our ecosystems, including that of the Cape Fear River,” the statement reads.

The Cape Fear region has been ground zero for PFAS contamination in the state after researchers several years ago discovered a number of the chemical compounds in the river, a drinking water source for more than a half-million North Carolinians.

The revelation that the Chemours Co. Fayetteville Works facility, located more than 70 miles upstream of Wilmington, had been discharging PFAS into the river, air and ground for decades ignited a fury of lawsuits and state-supported investigative studies on everything from effective PFAS filtration methods and source detections to human health studies.

Chemours, which now operates under a consent order that resulted from a legal challenge by Cape Fear River Watch and DEQ has reduced the amount of PFAS it emits into the environment through various measures. These include the construction of a mile-long, underground barrier to keep PFAS-contaminated groundwater from seeping to the Cape Fear.

One of the EPA’s now regulated individual chemical compounds known commercially as GenX has been discharged specifically from the Chemours plant in Bladen County.

Shortly after the EPA in June 2022 revised the GenX health level advisory to 10 parts per trillion, Chemours sued, arguing the agency failed to use the best available science when making its determination.

The case was argued earlier this year in the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, Chemours’ headquarters. A decision has not been rendered in that case.

The new federal regulatory limit on GenX is 10 parts per trillion, or ppt.

Other maximum limits on individual PFAS include the following:

• Perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, at 4 ppt.
• Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, at 4 ppt.
• Perfluorononoanoic acid, or PFNA, at 10 ppt.
• Perfluorohexane sulfonate, or PFHxS, at 10 ppt.

Any mixture of two or more of GenX, PFNA, PFHxS, and perfluorobutane sulfonate, or PFBS, may not exceed a hazard index of 1. The hazard index is made up of a sum of fractions used to calculate humans’ exposure to levels where health effects are not anticipated to occur.

PFOA and PFOS are two of the most widely studied PFAS.

Health studies on other PFAS, including GenX, are ongoing, though the number of compounds being studied pale in comparison to the number of PFAS identified in the EPA’s registry – 15,000.

Current studies suggest PFAS affect pregnant women and developing babies, immune systems, increase the risk of certain types of cancers, and may result in elevated cholesterol levels, which increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Government leaders in various states, including North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, on Wednesday lauded the EPA’s final rule.

Cooper thanked EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who headed DEQ before taking the helm at the federal agency, for “taking this action to protect drinking water in North Carolina and across the country.”

“We asked for this because we know science-based standards for PFAS and other compounds are desperately needed,” Cooper said in a release.

DEQ has sampled 50 municipal and county water systems and more than 530 small public water systems since 2022, according to the agency.

“DEQ has already worked with water systems to measure for PFAS in advance of this rule, so they are well prepared to utilize the funding available now to take action and protect the people of North Carolina,” DEQ Secretary Elizabeth Biser said in a release.

Biser was referring to funding through the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a bipartisan bill that President Joe Biden signed into law in late 2021. That measure set aside $9 billion to help communities upgrade drinking water systems with technologies that remove PFAS.

Currently though, there are no federal safeguards in place for private well owners.

DEQ has required Chemours to test thousands of private water wells in New Hanover, Brunswick, Columbus and Pender counties and identify residents who may be eligible for replacement drinking water at the cost of the company.

The agency more recently introduced a statewide program to aid residents whose well water is found to have PFAS at or above health advisory levels. The program targets PFAS contamination of private wells in areas where there is not a designated responsible part to provide alternative drinking water.

Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear, said in a release she is grateful that the EPA “heard our pleas and kept its promise to the American people.”

“We will keep fighting until all exposures to PFAS end and the chemical companies responsible for business-related human rights abuses are held fully accountable,” she stated.

Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney Jean Zhuang said the EPA’s new drinking water standards are “a welcome backstop” and called for federal, state and municipal leaders to stop PFAS pollution at the source.

“The Clean Water Act already provides the tools necessary for agencies to stop PFAS pollution through the permitting process before it gets into drinking water sources,” Zhaung said in a release. “If existing laws are enforced, as they should be, they will keep PFAS pollution out of our waterways and downstream drinking water.”   

N.C. Conservation Network Environmental Health Campaigns Manager Stephanie Schweikert expressed similar sentiments in a statement to the media.

“EPA’s historic and protective new drinking water standards for PFAS will go a long way toward protecting North Carolinians from the adverse health impacts of forever chemicals exposure – particularly when paired with existing federal investments available to upgrade water utilities,” she stated. “North Carolina leaders must now take steps to address industrial discharges and turn off the tape of PFAS pollution at the source.”

WILMINGTON – North Carolina’s leading PFAS researchers aim to trace the chemical compounds found in waterways, air and soil in the state to the polluters emitting them.

Using newly acquired machines called mass spectrometers, scientists will also have the ability to identify per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances not in the Environmental Protection Agency’s registry, one that has steadily grown over the past several years from a few thousand to 15,000 known PFAS today.

The brand-new fleet of mass spectrometers are being disbursed to research labs on a handful of university campuses that are part of the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory’s PFAS Testing Network.

Referred to as the PFAST Network, this group of academic researchers was created after scientists at N.C. State University and the EPA discovered that the Cape Fear River, the drinking water sources for tens of thousands, contained elevated levels of PFAS.

The discovery sparked what has become a nationally-recognized, state-led effort to better understand the potential human health effects of PFAS and ways to cut down the amount of these chemicals from getting into the environment.

Academic researchers, state legislators, environmental regulators and representatives with Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the multibillion-dollar company that makes the mass spectrometers, recently hosted a press conference on the campus of the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Center for Marine Science to announce how the technology will be used to expand PFAS research here in the state.

Related: Secretaries’ Science Board to review PFAS’ effects

Dr. Lee Ferguson, an environmental analytical chemist and assistant professor at Duke University, said the investments by the North Carolina General Assembly, which has pumped millions into PFAS research, and the collaboration with Thermo Fisher, puts the network at the cusp of increasing the sophistication of its PFAS investigations.

The mass spectrometers will allow researchers to move from canvassing the state for PFAS contamination to “understanding sources, tracking those sources, fingerprinting those sources and then move into collaborations with treatment technologies and treatment engineers to try to remove those contamination sources,” he said.

“Specifically, the new instrumentation that we are getting, and already have in some cases, will allow us to do things like ultra-fast and ultra-sensitive, targeted and nontargeted analysis so that we can try to get a picture of those 15,000 PFAS compounds that may be present,” Ferguson said.

In all, five mass spectrometers are being delivered to labs at Duke University, N.C. State, UNCW and East Carolina University.

Thermo Fisher showcased a mock mass spectrometer at the March 27 afternoon press conference. The instrument is not exactly a visual marvel. It looks like a large, boxy-shaped piece of equipment you might see in any given lab.

Each machine will be used like a key that will unlock some of the mysteries about PFAS –which PFAS are in the environment, what levels of them are in the environment, where they’re coming from and what treatments are available to reduce the amount that get into the environment.

UNCW Professor Dr. Ralph Mead explained that the mass spectrometer in a lab he heads at the university’s Center for Marine Science will be used to investigate samples of everything from rain and snow to soil.

“Specifically, the questions that we’re trying to address is understanding can we use that instrument to develop a forensics approach to trace the source of PFAS, as well as understand the fate and ultimate transport of it,” he said.

As researchers gather this and other information, they will be able to create an online library, one that would be a resource for environmental regulators and law makers navigating how much to crack down on industries that use PFAS to make a sweeping array of consumer goods.

The General Assembly will, by this July, have appropriated more than $50 million for the collaboratory specifically to perform PFAS-related research in the state.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-New Hanover, one of a small number of state delegates who spoke at last week’s press conference, said North Carolina is fortunate, not because it is, in some respects, ground zero for PFAS, but because the state has some of the leading experts to take on PFAS research.

“Here we are today utilizing state-of-the-art equipment from a great company to really accomplish some of the goals that we not only want as a state, but we want as a solution to a worldwide problem,” he said.

Rep. Deb Butler, D-New Hanover, said the discovery of PFAS in the Cape Fear region is a reminder of the far-reaching consequences of unchecked pollution.

“For too long, PFAS contamination has lurked beneath the surface undetected and unchecked,” she said. “In my opinion, we have not been diligent enough on the front-end of manufacturing and that must change. We must demand stringent standards for PFAS emissions, as well as any discharge that affects our public trust resources. We must strengthen enforcement mechanisms and promote pollution prevention initiatives. By addressing the root causes of contamination rather than focusing on the cleanup, we will better serve the citizens of North Carolina.”

State officials are expected to ask the panel of experts making up the Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board for direction on existing PFAS health risk data during the meeting at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Raleigh.

The board that guides the departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services will be asked to look at and compare exposure assessments from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, compounds.

Exposure assessments, which include measuring the amount, frequency and duration of exposure, are one way to find out if a community could have been exposed to a certain type of substance in their environment, according to the CDC.

The public is invited to attend the meeting in the Archdale Building, 512 N Salisbury St., Raleigh, or listen online through WebEx. Webinar number is 2437 875 2089 and password is NCDEQ. There will be an in-person public comment period during the meeting with an opportunity to sign up upon arrival.

Related: NC scientists receive tools for tracking new compounds

Other items on the draft agenda include an update on a PFAS rulemaking package, and peer-reviewed studies published since the board’s 2023 recommendation on PFMOAA, which is a PFAS unique to North Carolina.

The board also will discuss human health risk data for 1,4-Dioxane in drinking water. The substance 1,4-Dioxane is a solvent used in the manufacture of other chemicals, and is a trace contaminant of some chemicals used in cosmetics, detergents and shampoos, per the CDC.

The Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board includes experts in toxicology, public health, ecology, engineering, and other related fields who assist the departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services. To learn more about the board and hear recordings of past meetings, visit the website.

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its statutory authority when it ordered a Texas-based company to stop creating long-lasting toxic chemicals while manufacturing plastic containers.

The three judges for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans filed their unanimous decision Thursday, vacating the two orders the EPA had issued Dec. 1, 2023.

The orders under the authority of the Toxic Substances Control Act, Section 5, directed Inhance Technologies LLC in Houston not to create per-and-polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, as a byproduct during production of fluorinated high-density polyethylene, or HDPE, plastic containers. The containers are used to store products such as pesticides, fuel and automotive liquids.

The EPA argued that the PFAS in the plastic containers can seep into the liquid products and lead to potential exposure, like seeping into groundwater or through fish ingestion.

Inhance has been using the same fluorination process since 1983 to create “a barrier that keeps dangerous substances from leaching out of their containers, and keeps outside substances from permeating in,” the ruling states.

The EPA used its authority under Section 5, which allows the agency to determine and regulate new substances, rather than Section 6, which is broader and includes all chemicals but also has more requirements.

“Inhance argues that the EPA exceeded its statutory authority by issuing orders under Section 5 instead of Section 6 because Inhance’s forty-year-old fluorination process is not a ‘significant new use’ under TSCA. We agree,” Circuit Judge Cory Wilson writes in the ruling.

“I am exceedingly pleased with the ruling and grateful to our customers and employees for their resilience, dedication, and support,” Inhance Technologies President and CEO Andrew Thompson said in a release.

Jeff Landis in the EPA’s media office told Coastal Review Monday that the agency “is reviewing the decision.”

The EPA began looking into Inhance after being notified by an environmental group in September 2020 that PFAS contamination was present in a mosquitocide stored in one of the company’s fluorinated containers, the agency said.

The EPA determined that when Inhance products go through the fluorination process, numerous types of PFAS are manufactured. These chemicals leach into the product.

The agency argued that the “fluorination process was subject to a significant new use rule regarding long-chain perfluoroalkyls (PFAS),” and issued Inhance a notice of violation in March 2022 for failing to notify the agency before it began manufacturing PFAS.

“Inhance had five years from the proposal of EPA’s long-chain PFAS significant new use rule in 2015 to when it was finalized in 2020 to inform EPA that it was manufacturing long-chain PFAS as part of its process,” the EPA said. After the notice, the agency found that Inhance continued to manufacture the regulated PFAS and intended to continue with its fluorination process and the Department of Justice filed suit on behalf of EPA against Inhance in December 2022.

The notice directed Inhance to either change its fluorination process so it no longer manufactured PFAS, or to temporarily halt the fluorination of any products that resulted in the creation of PFAS, the ruling states. Instead, Inhance submitted significant new use notices for the nine PFAS it manufactures to EPA for review on Dec. 30, 2022.

The EPA requires significant new use notices under Section 5. If the EPA finds that there is not enough evidence to determine the effects of the substance or presents an unreasonable risk of injury, then the agency must issue an order prohibiting or limiting the manufacture of the substance.

The EPA announced Dec. 1, 2023, that after reviewing the significant new use notices from Inhance and consistent with the “Framework for Addressing new PFAS and New Uses of PFAS,” the agency had determined that three of the PFAS “are highly toxic and present unreasonable risks that cannot be prevented other than through prohibition of manufacture.”

The agency also determined that the other six of the nine PFAS chemicals manufactured by the company may present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment, and under the Toxic Substances Control Act, “is requiring the company to cease manufacture of these chemicals, and to perform additional testing if it intends to restart production,” the Dec. 1, 2023, press release explains.

“PFAS should not be in the plastic containers people use every day, period,” Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Assistant Administrator Michal Freedhoff said in the Dec. 1, 2023, release. “EPA’s action today is one more way we are furthering the Biden-Harris Administration’s Strategic Roadmap to combat PFAS pollution.”

A week later, on Dec. 8, 2023, Inhance announced plans to seek review by the 5th Circuit, “to stop the one-sided orders” issued by the EPA.

“If allowed to take effect, the orders will force Inhance Technologies to shut down its 11 barrier technology facilities across the U.S., disrupting downstream industries and related supply chains that rely on the company’s environmentally critical technology,” the company said.

As a result of the EPA learning about PFAS in mosquitocide through this type of container in September 2020, the agency announced Feb. 15 a new method to serve as an additional tool for its staff and for industries that use HDPE containers to identify PFAS contamination.

Inhance has fluorinated up to 200 million containers annually, “which is more containers than there are households in America. The release of 2.2 Kg (kilograms or 4.85 pounds) of these 9 PFAS could cause significant contamination of drinking water supplies leading to risks of adverse health effects in millions of people,” according to the EPA.

“For example, EPA recently proposed a Maximum Contaminant Level of 4 parts per trillion for PFOA in drinking water. Additionally, EPA has also proposed that there is no level of PFOA in drinking water that is without risk of adverse health effects. If 2.2 Kg of PFOA were released to drinking water sources, it would contaminate more than 145 billion gallons of water to levels that would exceed this proposed enforceable level. This corresponds to almost three years’ worth of water use in the City of New Orleans,” the EPA continued.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, and the Center for Environmental Health, or CEH, responded Friday, announcing jointly that the organizations were “deeply disappointed and alarmed” by the 5th Circuit’s “flawed decision.”

The groups said Inhance Technologies’ fluorination process “results in hundreds of millions of plastic containers leaching toxic PFAS chemicals into food, cosmetics, cleaning supplies, fuels, and other household products.” The public health danger must be addressed, they said.

“Significantly, Inhance’s customers are now unquestionably on notice that their products contain several PFAS that EPA has determined are harmful to health. They should consider alternatives to fluorination that are PFAS-free,” PEER said.

The two organizations and the EPA are plaintiffs in a December 2023 suit in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to enforce Toxic Substances Control Act requirements against Inhance.

“PEER and CEH will now pursue that case in addition to any other remedies that are available to abate this significant and unreasonable danger to public health, and will urge the government to do so as well,” they said.

Public comment is open until April 30 on a proposed rule change that would allow the state to certify commercial, municipal or industrial laboratories to test for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and report that data back to the state.

The proposed revision adds PFAS to the list of parameters in an existing rule that will allow the N.C. Division of Water Resources to certify labs to use Environmental Protection Agency-approved methods for testing for PFAS and certify those results.

The proposed rule can be viewed online as well as the regulatory impact analysis.

PFAS are manmade chemical compounds used in a variety of consumer products such nonstick cookware, stain resistant carpets, food packaging and waterproof gear, as well as firefighting foam. PFAS has been found in the drinking water sources of tens of thousands of North Carolinians.

The division will accept written comments through April 30 to deq.wr.certificationrulecomments@deq.nc.gov or Laboratory Certification Branch Manager, 1623 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC, 27699-1623.

There is also a public hearing scheduled for 6 p.m. March 20 in the Ground Floor Hearing Room of the Archdale Building in Raleigh. Members of the public can sign up to provide comment upon arrival.

“While the rule change is not expected to add additional requirements for permittees, the rule amendment would allow permittees to comply with requirements that monitoring data reported to the state on PFAS be performed by a certified laboratory,” officials said Tuesday.

The U.S. Geological Survey has launched an online tool that helps identify the likelihood of PFAS in local tap water.

Scientists with the federal agency have created an interactive map that allows viewers to see data from a USGS study on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in tap water and known sources of PFAS throughout the country.

PFAS, often referred to as “forever chemicals,” are thousands of manmade chemical compounds used in consumer goods that include everything from food packaging and waterproof clothing to non-stick cookware and stain-resistant carpet. These chemicals are also used in firefighting foams.

PFAS have been found in drinking water sources, including the Cape Fear River, throughout the country.

Scientists are studying the potential health effects of different types of PFAS – there are more than 10,000 – in humans. Health studies so far indicate at least some PFAS impact immune response in people, may result in low birthweight in infants and increase the risks of certain types of cancers.

View the dashboard

Visit https://geonarrative.usgs.gov/pfasustapwater/ to view the “PFAS in US Tapwater Interactive Dashboard.”

It’s been more than six years since the first blood samples were collected from residents in the Cape Fear region participating in a study to measure their exposure to synthetic chemicals being discharged into their drinking water source.

That study, known as the GenX Exposure Study, has since then transitioned to one that will allow researchers to examine potential long-term health effects in hundreds of North Carolinians who for years unknowingly drank water containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

Today, a little more than 1,000 residents from a town in the state’s Piedmont and east to the southeastern coast of North Carolina are part of the health study examining how past exposure to PFAS may affect human health.

“We’ve been measuring cholesterol and thyroid and comprehensive metabolic panels and height and weight and (body mass index) and so we can now look at how things change over time,” said Jane Hoppin, principal investigator of the GenX Exposure Study and professor at North Carolina State University.

Blood samples were first collected from a few hundred residents in the Cape Fear region in late 2017, just months after the public was first made aware that the Cape Fear River, the drinking water source for tens of thousands of people, had for decades been a dumping ground for a chemical manufacturing plant roughly 80 miles upstream of Wilmington.

GenX, one of more than 10,000 PFAS in existence today, is a chemical compound specific to the Chemours Fayetteville Works plant, which is under a court order to vastly reduce the amount of PFAS it discharges into the river, emits into the air and spills onto the ground.

About 500 residents in the lower Cape Fear region are taking part in the health study. Another 300 or so participants live in Fayetteville and a little more than 200 reside in Pittsboro, a town roughly 100 miles upstream of Chemours. Pittsboro’s drinking water source, the Haw River, has some of the highest levels of PFAS in the state, according research conducted through the North Carolina PFAS Testing Network.

What researchers call legacy PFAS — perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS — found in the Haw River have been traced to textile and furniture manufacturing operations.

“Having this wide range and different mixtures in different places is helpful in understanding” human health effects from exposure to PFAS, Hoppin said.

Results from a GenX Exposure Study published in 2022 showed a correlation between people found to have elevated levels of PFAS in their blood with higher total cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, the latter of which puts people at a higher risk of hardening of the arteries, heart disease, chest pain, heart attack and stroke.

That study included blood samples collected in November 2017 and again in May 2018 from nearly 350 Wilmington residents, including 55 children. Blood was analyzed to measure levels of PFOA and PFOS, fluoroethers such as GenX, and lipids.

GenX was ultimately not detected because the chemical has been found to last in blood for about three days.

Moving forward, Hoppin said, researchers overseeing the health study will collect new blood samples to look at various markers, including how PFAS may influence weight gain and changes in weight.

“We have people who are ages 6 to 90 and so we want to focus on health outcomes that impact all of us,” she said. “We’ve looked at response to COVID vaccines and, for example, there’s growing interest in how these chemicals may influence bone growth and developments.”

Ideally, those participating in the study will have their blood drawn, urine collected, weight and height measured and fill out health surveys every two to three years for the next 20 years, Hoppin said.

“It’s a very complex situation and even just trying to start to understand exposure, like why do the people on private drinking wells have similar levels of legacy PFAS as other communities that drink municipal water? How do we think about inhalation for the people who live around the plant? We’re trying to understand exposure and then move forward and have large enough sample sizes to really describe health outcomes. We want to be sure that we have sufficient statistical power to answer those questions.”

As research continues to unveil potential health impacts of PFAS in humans, public water systems including the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, have taken steps to reduce the amount of PFAS exposure in drinking water.

The Cape Fear authority and Brunswick County Public Utilities have spent millions to install treatment systems to remove PFAS from their raw water.

Nationwide, chemical manufacturers including 3M and DuPont have faced a barrage of lawsuits asking courts to hold such companies responsible for the release of PFAS into the environment.

Earlier this month, New Hanover County commissioners filed a lawsuit in that county’s superior court against more than a dozen makers and vendors of products made with PFAS.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to set limits on six PFAS in public water systems. The EPA would limit a combination of GenX and three other compounds — perfluoronanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS).

The agency also proposes to set maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs, on PFOA and PFOS each at 4 parts per trillion.

EPA estimates that between 3,400 and more than 6,000 public water systems across the country contain at least one of these compounds that exceeds the proposed limits.

Researchers are working on how to improve environmental health literacy among medical clinicians to help doctors better understand how to use health studies like the GenX study to care for their patients.

Hoppin said the hope is that the samples currently being collected in this study will be used to further research PFAS exposure and potential health effects in people.

Results of the latest round of blood samples are expected to be shared with participants sometime this spring.

New Hanover County is suing more than a dozen makers and vendors of products made with chemical compounds that are a source of contamination in the area’s drinking water.

County officials filed a lawsuit Friday in New Hanover County Superior Court in an effort to hold accountable the manufacturers and sellers of products that contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, according to a release.

“The blatant disregard for the health and well-being of our citizens and the environment is something we as County Commissioners take very seriously and it’s why we have authorized this litigation,” New Hanover County Board of Commissioners Chair Bill Rivenbark said in the release. “For decades, companies have allowed these toxins to be released into the air we breathe and water we drink. They’ve also knowingly used PFAS in products that were crucial to public safety but were also contributing factors to contamination. It’s time they were held accountable for their actions and made to be a part of the solution for a problem they created.”

The county’s lawsuit is the latest in a lengthening string of legal challenges being brought against companies that manufacture and use PFAS, chemicals that are found in everything from stainproof carpets and food packaging to waterproof clothing and makeup and firefighting foams.

“These products have inadvertently contributed to the pollution of our environment, posing health risks to our firefighters and residents,” according to the release.

This year will mark the seventh since the public was made aware that PFAS, including a compound known as GenX, were for decades being discharged into the Cape Fear River, the drinking water source for tens of thousands of people in the region.

PFAS were also being released into the air and ground from Chemours Fayetteville Works facility, a chemical manufacturing plant nearly 80 miles upstream of Wilmington.

Thousands of private drinking water wells continue to be tested in the region for elevated levels of PFAS contamination.

Human health studies suggest PFAS may have adverse impacts on immune systems, liver, low birth weight and increased risk of certain cancers, including prostate, kidney and testicular cancers.

To curb the amount of PFAS exposure to residents, New Hanover County discontinued using firefighting foam that contains the chemicals.

The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority in October 2022 initiated a more than $40 million carbon filtration system to remove PFAS from its drinking water supply. The system costs about $5 million annually to maintain.

As part of a 2019 consent order, Chemours is required to block much of the PFAS produced at the Fayetteville plant from entering the river, air and ground.

Owners of private drinking wells in the region are encouraged to take part in a well-testing program at no cost to the homeowner.

Thousands of additional private drinking water wells throughout the Cape Fear region may be eligible for sampling by Chemours for PFAS contamination.

More than 14,100 additional residences on private wells in New Hanover, Brunswick, Columbus and Pender counties may now qualify for per- and polyfluoroalkyl sampling, a move the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is enforcing after reviewing ongoing well monitoring results, floodplain maps and Chemours’ 2022 updated interim sampling and drinking water plan, according to a news release.

Sampling will occur only in private wells that are the residence’s primary drinking water source.

The updated sampling footprint includes:

• Wells within a quarter-mile of a floodplain buffer that includes the Intracoastal Waterway and portions of Cape Fear River tributaries.
• Residences with a quarter-mile of properties where well water has tested for contamination.
• Wells with a quarter-mile of public water lines.
• Additional requirements for land on which treated sewage sludge has been applied 

Those who have previously requested sampling and are now eligible under the testing expansion will be contacted soon, according to DEQ. 

Chemours is required under Consent Order to test qualifying private water wells for PFAS, which the company knowingly discharged for into the environment, including the Cape Fear River, a raw drinking water source for tens of thousands in the region, for decades.

The company is required to provide temporary drinking water supplies to households with wells that contain PFAS above concentrations established by environmental and health officials until a new, permanent supply, whether through a home filtration system or hook up to a public water system, is provided at the company’s expense.

For more information, visit DEQ’s website.

The Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board will hear during its in-person meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday in Raleigh a toxicology summary for PFAS and updates on recent studies for the long-lasting chemicals.

The meeting is to take place in the Archdale Building’s ground floor hearing room at 512 N. Salisbury St. The public can sign up to comment at the meeting.

The draft agenda is available online as well as information on how to join by WebEx or by phone.

Department of Environmental Quality staff will present a synopsis of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, toxicological summary shared during the Nov. 9 Environmental Management Commission meeting, and the status of the consent order toxicology studies and other known PFAS studies underway at other agencies.

Related: State on ‘aggressive’ timeline to meet PFAS water standards

Also during the meeting, DEQ Assistant Secretary Sushma Masemore will request the board’s assistance to prepare a legislative report that assesses human health risks of 1,4-Dioxane in drinking water as outlined in the state law, “An Act To Provide Further Regulatory Relief To The Citizens Of North Carolina.”

The Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board currently includes 13 experts who assist state departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services with recommending reviews and evaluations of contaminants, acting as consultants on DEQ’s determinations to regulate contaminants, and helping the agencies identify contaminants of concern and determine which contaminants should be studied further. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reversed its approval for Chemours to import GenX into North Carolina.

The agency announced its decision today, prompting quick responses from both state officials and the company.

“It’s good that the EPA reversed this decision and I’m grateful for their quick response,” Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement. “We have been working for years in North Carolina to force the cleanup of forever chemicals to help ensure clean water, and companies like Chemours have made this effort more difficult.”

Chemours in a release this afternoon said it does not discharge GenX into the Cape Fear River through its recycling process at its Fayetteville Works facility in Bladen County and that a “calculation error” had incorrectly identified the amount the company wants to import.

“Our reclamation and recycling process for [GenX] is circular and more environmentally friendly than manufacturing larger quantities of new compound,” the release states. “We identified and acknowledged a calculation error in the applications to the Dutch ILT that we proactively disclosed to US regulators. The amount being imported is in fact far below the levels approved by EPA in the original permit. We are working to correct the information and will continue to engage with authorities on the path forward.”

The EPA’s decision in October to sign off on Chemours importing as much as 4 million pounds of GenX from its plant in the Netherlands sparked outrage from state and local officials.

GenX is one of thousands of manmade chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and is specific to Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant.

Chemours is under a Consent Order with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and the nonprofit Cape Fear River Watch to drastically reduce the amount of PFAS it discharges into the environment, including the Cape Fear River, which is the drinking water source for tens of thousands of people. The company is also being held responsible for PFAS contamination in private wells throughout the Cape Fear region, which includes at least eight counties.

The EPA made its decision to reverse course based on information provided by DEQ, according to a department release.

“We appreciate that the EPA heard the concerns shared by the Governor and the residents directly affected by PFAS contamination from Chemours,” NCDEQ Secretary Elizabeth Biser said in a statement. “North Carolina is committed to reducing PFAS pollution and today’s reversal aligns with that goal.”

The company stated that it had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in emissions controls at its Fayetteville plant. “Chemours responsibly manufactures critical products that support national and Biden Administration priorities like American manufacturing of semiconductors and decarbonizing the energy sector. Our products and our actions promote a more sustainable future, and we will continue to deliver on our commitment to reduce our environmental footprint.”

In September, experts appointed to the United Nations sent letters to Chemours, Corteva and DuPont de Nemours criticizing their use of PFAS.

Those UN experts said the companies likely violated the human rights of residents in the Cape Fear region.

Letters were also sent to the governments of the Netherlands and the United States accusing regulators of failing to protect human health and the environment.

Native Americans in North Carolina face a disproportionately higher risk for preterm birth because of exposure to mixtures of toxic metals in their private drinking water wells, according to a recent study.

Women whose private wells have tested for higher levels of lead or cadmium, as opposed to those whose wells with lower levels of those metals, have an increased risk of giving birth prematurely, or before 37 weeks, the study found.

Researchers also found that people exposed to a mixture of lead, cadmium and chromium are at higher risk of preterm birth, said Dr. Lauren Eaves, research scientist and adjunct assistant professor with the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Gillings School of Public Health and co-author of the study.

“We also found that the effect was strong among American Indian individuals, and I think it’s important to both highlight this but (to also) put it in the correct context that this isn’t any unique genetic susceptibility,” she said.

University researchers and others at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences combined 20 years of well water test records and more than 1 million birth certificates from 2003 to 2015 and found that 9.4%, or 124,000, were preterm.

North Carolina has the largest population — more than an estimated 2 million people — of people in the country who get their drinking water from private wells.

Unlike water provided by public systems, private well water is not protected by the Safe Water Drinking Act, which sets limits on the levels of certain contaminants in drinking water.

The effect of this, nationwide, equates to higher levels of metals, particularly arsenic and lead, in the bodies of people who rely on private well water as opposed to those on public water systems, Eaves said.

This places low-income and nonwhite families in rural areas at particular risk because they often lack the financial means to upgrade their wells with filtration systems or drill new wells.

According to information provided by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, private well owners are, in most cases, responsible for getting their water sampled.

PFAS contamination

Hundreds of private wells in the Cape Fear River Basin have either been tested or are waiting to be tested for GenX and other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, contamination linked to Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant in Bladen County.

Under the terms of a consent order, Chemours is responsible for paying to either install filtration systems in homes with wells that test for high levels of those contaminants or tap fees for households where access to public water systems are available.

The state has also established a pilot program that provides some financial assistance to low-income households to buy treatment systems or pay for public water system connection fees in areas where PFAS contamination cannot be attributed to any one particular source polluter. The pilot program is only for private well water users in New Hanover, Pender, Columbus, Brunswick and Guilford counties.

The spotlight PFAS contamination in the Cape Fear region is shining on water quality issues within the state is likely to aid at least some Native Americans living in North Carolina, but not all.

Systemic environmental injustice

Eaves said that what is most likely happening in Indigenous communities is that they’re experiencing forms of environmental injustice, such as municipal underbounding.

Municipal underbounding occurs when cities and towns keep communities of color outside of municipal boundaries.

Research is limited on whether this type of environmental injustice is occurring in Native American communities in the state, Eaves said.

However, municipal underbounding is “very well documented” for Black communities in North Carolina, she said.

“So, we hypothesize that this might be also happening for American Indian communities and we’re currently working on trying to actually scope out the evidence for that,” she said.

The study does not identify which tribes in the state face the greatest risk for preterm birth.

“What we do know is that larger communities of American Indian folks in Robeson County, Scotland County, and these areas where there are huge environmental injustice problems for our Lumbee community, for our Cherokee community out in the west, but particularly in that southeast region — Lumbee, Coharie — face a lot of environmental injustices and this lack of resources around private well water is compounding that,” Eaves said. “I think there’s limited resources for folks to test and treat that water and I think that’s what that finding is really demonstrating is that we need to pay particular attention to more vulnerable communities.”

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, more than 130,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives live in North Carolina.

There are eight state-recognized tribes: Coharie, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, which are also fully recognized by the federal government, Haliwa-Saponi, Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, which also has partial federal recognition, Meherrin, Sappony, Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation and Waccamaw Siouan.

Representatives for the Coharie in Sampson County and the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina in Robeson County did not respond to questions and requests for comment.

In the United States, the rate of preterm births is highest for Black infants at 14.4%, followed by Native Americans and Alaska Natives at 11.8%, according to March of Dimes.

Preterm babies can suffer from a myriad of physical and mental impairments. The first-year average medical costs for premature babies in the U.S. was about four times greater than that of full-term babies in 2016.

That same year, the annual societal economic cost, including medical, educational and lost productivity, associated with preterm births was no less than $25.2 billion.

It can be incredibly stressful for communities experiencing higher rates of preterm births as members of that community seek answers to uncover why early births are occurring and how to protect not only pregnant women, but everyone in that community, Eaves said.

“And, I think it can be really distressing to know that there are contaminants in your water,” she said. “Everyone deserves clean water and so I think it can have a huge emotional effect on communities. I think that thinking about environmental health and exposures during pregnancy is under-researched and not considered as often as I think it should. I hope that as a state we continue to raise awareness around this and provide resources for pregnant folks to be able to protect themselves in the context of metals. We need to work to reduce these exposures that our communities are facing.”

Almost a third of drinking water systems sourced from rivers, streams and lakes in North Carolina will not meet proposed federal drinking water standards.

Those 1,500 water providers would have three years to come into compliance with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed regulation expected to be finalized by year’s end.

Whatever treatment method those water providers use to meet the proposed federal rules, they’re facing substantial costs — costs that will most likely be passed down to customers.

North Carolina’s environmental regulators are forging a path to create state-enforceable rules on industries that release per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, into the environment.

Last week, the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission was presented a timeline of the state Department of Environmental Quality’s pursuit to reduce the amount of PFAS coming directly from polluters into surface and below-ground drinking water sources.

NCDEQ Assistant Secretary for Environment Sushma Masemore said regulators will provide the commission in March with a certified fiscal note, which is an estimate of the proposed regulations’ financial impact on the state budget, and ask the board to consider greenlighting the department to open a public comment period on proposed rules next summer.

It’s an “aggressive” timeline, she said during the commission’s meeting Nov. 9 in Raleigh, but one the department is working to meet.

Masemore emphasized that the state needs to protect its drinking water sources, and make sure the water that people drink is below the primary drinking water standards.

“We need to do what we must do,” she continued, to make sure surface water discharges and groundwater systems are as clean as possible. “We need to reduce the treatment costs burden of these drinking water systems by addressing those upstream discharges.”

As the EPA is looking at primary drinking water standards, it’s up to states to determine surface water standards by looking at upstream PFAS discharge sources, she said.

“As a result, the cost impact for those ratepayers will be reduced and so it is not a cost that’s borne by one group of people that are usually downstream of such sources, but that it is borne across all contributors,” Masemore said.

The EPA announced earlier this year its proposal to set limits on six PFAS in public water systems. The agency is expected to finalize limits on a combination of four chemical compounds: GenX, perfluorononanoic acid, or PFNA, perfluorohexane sulfonic acid, or PFHxS, and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid, or PFBS; and set maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs, of 4 parts per trillion each of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, two of the most widely studied PFAS.

Under the proposed rules, public water providers would have to monitor for those PFAS and report the results of sampling to the public if any level of PFAS exceed the proposed regulatory standards.

Masemore explained that DEQ wants to go beyond what EPA is doing and address additional PFAS specifically found in drinking water sources in North Carolina and identified in DEQ’s PFAS Priority List.

North Carolina is joining other states that are developing their own regulations or addressing PFAS within their own programs because they either have manufacturing facilities that are large-scale contributors of PFAS in surface and ground waters, air and soil. PFAS do not occur naturally in the environment.

Those states are at the forefront of analyzing current and ongoing studies on the human health and environmental effects of various PFAS, of which there are thousands, Masemore said.

“As a result, those states are also proposing similar regulations that are in effect and many people are actually going back and readjusting those regulations because of the new science being brought to everyone’s attention,” she said.

DEQ is taking a two-pronged approach to addressing PFAS: stopping future PFAS contaminants known to have adverse human health effects from getting into the environment, and cleaning up sites the state knows exist today.

Public water supply systems provide drinking water to more than 9 million North Carolinians. There currently are 380 municipal drinking water systems in 97 of the state’s 100 counties.

NCDEQ has identified 50 drinking water systems that contain elevated levels of various PFAS. Testing of those systems in 2022 revealed that 43 of those systems had concentrations of PFAS above the EPA’s proposed limits.

About 1,500 or so drinking water systems that rely on groundwater sources in the state serve 500 or fewer residents. Of those, 17% contain PFAS above proposed federal limits.

Extensive private well water testing is ongoing throughout multiple counties affected by PFAS contamination.

Masemore said the state must not forget about private well water users. The department’s Division of Waste Management has developed a variety of programs to support sampling and testing private wells. The state has also initiated a pilot program to assist low-income residents in covering costs to install filtration systems for wells that contain elevated levels of PFAS.

When asked whether the state has received feedback from industries known to be discharging PFAS into the environment about the prospect of state regulatory standards, Masemore said the response has thus far been “cautious and worried.”

“But also many sources realize that this is part of their future. They’re going to have to address it either through the state or federal government,” she said.

Residents of the Cape Fear region and environmental advocates balked at the EPA’s recent decision to allow the company responsible for discharging PFAS into the Cape Fear River for decades to import GenX into the state.

As first reported in NC Newsline, the agency last month notified Chemours the company could resume exportations of up to more than 4 million pounds of the chemical from its plant in The Netherlands to its Fayetteville Works facility in Bladen County to recycle or reuse the chemical.

But the EPA last week request the company pause imports, according to WRAL.

In a statement to the television station, an EPA spokesperson said that the agency “takes these concerns seriously and will review the notices that the company has provided to ensure the public remains safe.”

That statement came shortly after Gov. Roy Cooper sent a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan earlier this month urging the agency to reconsider and reverse its decision. Brunswick County commissioner Chairman Randy Thompson also wrote Regan, asking the agency to guarantee Chemours significantly reduces the amount of PFAS going into the Cape Fear River before allowing the company to allow more PFAS into the state.

Chemours has not imported shipments of GenX into the state this year and none are en route, according to the EPA.

In a statement to Coastal Review, a Chemours spokesperson last month explained that the plant recycles GenX to reuse it in manufacturing processes “for use in applications like semiconductor and electric vehicle production.”

“Reclaiming and recycling HFPO-DA (GenX) is an important circularity activity that helps reduce the need to manufacture larger volumes of new, virgin HFPO-DA,” the spokesperson stated.

Clean Cape Fear co-founder Emily Donovan said in an interview last month with CRO that North Carolinians cannot trust a company that knowingly discharged PFAS into the environment for years, news that first came to light in June 2017 in a story published in the Wilmington Star News.

“This is what really bothers me for our community is that this is not a company that has a track record of proactively taking a precautionary stance with this dangerous chemical that they’re making and they want to shift the burden to us, which they have been, while they made record profits for decades,” she said. “I just don’t have patience anymore for this company and for the loopholes that are allowed to exist. We knew six years ago that the only way a company of this size was able to get away with doing what they did for so long was because they had successfully managed to break the system to create the loopholes that benefited them.”

Do you have concerns about what’s happening along the state’s coast? The Coastal Society, North Carolina Sea Grant and the University of North Carolina Wilmington are hosting a forum Monday, Nov. 6, to address many of these coastal issues.

“Priority Issues in Coastal North Carolina,” a full-day gathering of coastal experts, professionals and officials will take place in UNCW’s Center for Marine Science, 5600 Marvin K Moss Lane, Wilmington.

The Coastal Society is an organization of private sector, academic and government professionals and students dedicated to actively addressing emerging coastal issues by fostering dialogue, forging partnerships and promoting communications and education, according to its website.

Keynote speaker will be North Carolina Division of Coastal Management Director Braxton Davis. Also planned for the day are three speaker panels, breakout discussion sessions, student poster session and contest, and a networking happy hour at Wilmington Brewing Co. to close out the day. The full agenda is available online.

Topics to be discussed include offshore wind planning and permitting, research and control of toxins, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and planning and implementing coastal resilience strategies.

Lynker Inc., North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management, North Carolina Coastal Federation, Duke University Marine Lab and East Carolina University are supporting the event.

Tickets, including fees and taxes, are $19.10 for students, $64.78 for professional Coastal Society members, and $76.19 for general admission. Tickets can be purchased through an online platform.

Reduced registration rates are also available for those who are able to demonstrate financial need on an individual basis by contacting the event planners. Registration discounts will be provided through promo codes issued only to those individuals.

Contact Coastal Society Executive Director Judy Tucker at admin@thecoastalsociety.org or Regional Event Planning Chair Jeff Flood at jflood@udel.edu with any questions regarding registration or event logistics.

The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission will consider during its November meeting approving 20 draft local programs for Neuse and Tar-Pamlico new development stormwater implementation and be brought up to speed on PFAS water quality standards.

Committee meetings are scheduled to take place from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Nov. 8 and the full commission meeting is to begin at 9 a.m. Nov. 9 both in the ground floor hearing room of the Archdale Building in Raleigh.

Agendas for all meetings and supporting documents are on the Commission webpage.

The 11 revised existing local programs and nine new local programs are to implement amended Neuse and Tar-Pamlico stormwater rules adopted April 1, 2020. The rule was implemented to achieve and maintain the nitrogen loading reduction goal established for the Neuse River estuary by the commission.

Also during the full commission meeting, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality staff will provide the commission updates on per- and polyfluorinated substances, or PFAS, water quality standards, including timelines and milestones, toxicological summaries, and standards for surface water and groundwater.

The public can attend in person or listen by phone or online.

To join the committee meetings online, use this WebEx link. Access code is 2433 313 7997 and password is ncdeq, or 62338 from phones and video systems. To listen by phone, call 1-415-655-0003, and to join by video system dial 24333137997@webex.com.

To listen to the full commission meeting Nov. 9 online, use this WebEx link with access code 2432 696 0303 and password ncdeq. To listen by phone, call 1-415-655-0003 or join by video system by dialing 24326960303@webex.com.

The Environmental Management Commission is responsible for adopting rules for the protection, preservation and enhancement of the state’s air and water resources. The Commission oversees and adopts rules for several divisions of the Department of Environmental Quality, including the Divisions of Air Quality, Land Resources and Water Resources.

Salary increases for state employees included in the recently adopted budget are expected to help narrow the gap of staff vacancies within the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

As of the first of this month, 256 out of 1,797 department positions were empty, holding the vacancy rate at just over 14%, according to DEQ Deputy Secretary for Public Affairs Sharon Martin.

Though that’s about a 5% decrease in the number of vacancies the department had around this same time a year ago, the department continues struggling to fill certain jobs where the pay is substantially more in the private sector.

The 2023 Appropriations Act that became law Oct. 3 includes state employee raises of 7% over two years and a laundry list of fee increases tacked on to permits and applications handled by DEQ’s various divisions.

Related: Budget strips certain powers from local governments

The legislative salary increase that is 4% the first year and 3% the second, fee hikes and money from the Labor Market Adjustment Fund of which more than $730,000 is included annually to recruit and retain critical staff positions “are helpful in beginning to address DEQ’s below market salaries,” Martin said in an email.

“However, we are still faced with the challenges of a highly competitive market, especially for engineers and environmental specialists,” she said. “DEQ continues to look for opportunities to address salary concerns and fill vacancies.”

DEQ’s vacancy rate is at 22% for engineers and environmental specialists.

Martin pointed out that the budget also includes 25 additional full-time positions, including one dozen jobs aimed at addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. PFAS are chemical compounds used in a variety of consumer products because of their resistance to heat, water, oil and grease.

There are well over 10,000 PFAS. Researchers are just scratching the surface on understanding how these chemicals, which are being released into the environment through the air, soil and drinking water sources, affect human health.

DEQ is monitoring PFAS in the Cape Fear River and other drinking water sources in the state, and the agency is working with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to test fish for PFAS to issue fish consumption advisories based on those test results.

The department also oversees the North Carolina Resilient Coastal Communities Program, or NC RCCP, which received a $10 million budget allocation. 

NC RCCP aims to boost resilience efforts in the state’s 20 coastal counties and encourages those who live and work along the coast to participate in finding solutions and prioritizing projects designed to help their communities bounce back from flooding and storms. The program is a product of the state’s 2020 Climate Risk Assessment & Resilience Plan, which was the result of Executive Order 80 signed by Gov. Roy Cooper in October 2018.

Also included in the budget is $2 billion in investments for water and wastewater infrastructure throughout the state.

Fee increases range anywhere from around $200 to $400, and more in some cases.

Martin said more than 15 years have passed since the last fee increases had been implemented for many programs within the department.

The budget became law without Cooper’s signature. The governor, who is wrapping up his final term in office, called the budget “bad,” saying that, among other things, some provisions within it violate the constitution.

A provision of the law stipulates that DEQ cannot refuse to accept or issue an application for a permit, authorization, or certification if the applicant has not first received those from any other state or federal agencies “except to the extent required by federal or State law.”

The provision also restricts local governments’ authority by mandating that they cannot deny a draft erosion and sedimentation control plan if an applicant has yet to receive other environmental permits, “aside from a permit required for stormwater discharges from construction sites.”

Local governments must grant conditional approval on a draft plan “upon the applicant’s compliance with federal and State water quality laws, regulations, and rules.

Legislators also repealed a previous law that eliminated a fast-track permitting option for stormwater permits.

The fast-tracking process will exempt applicants who meet certain requirements from going through a technical review.

“DEQ will allocate the resources necessary to address required actions under the budget – including rulemaking,” Martin said. “On express permitting, the rulemaking requirement will allow for a public process as we codify the procedures governing existing express permitting.”

Other provisions in the Act prohibit the department, the state’s Utilities Commission and Environmental Management Commission, and the governor from requiring electric public utilities to participate in programs that offset carbon dioxide emissions.

DEQ and other state agencies, including the Department of Transportation, cannot adopt or enforce emissions control standards on new motor vehicles.

State environmental officials are mulling a request from Wilmington’s predominate drinking water supplier to add another chemical compound to the list of PFAS the state is studying to understand potential health effects in people.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Executive Director Kenneth Waldroup met with members of the N.C. Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board Wednesday to talk about the challenge of removing perfluoropropionic acid, or PFPrA, from the utility’s raw drinking water source. The board advises the Department of Environmental Quality and the state Department of Health and Human Services in identifying contaminants of concern and determining which contaminants should be studied for public health risks.

More than one month has passed since the utility sent a letter to the board’s chair and DEQ, asking that PFPrA get added to the state’s priority per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, list.

PFPrA is an ultra-short-chain PFAS. Ultra-short-chain chemical compounds are the smallest and hardest to remove during drinking water treatment.

In the year since the utility began operating its multi-million-dollar granular activated carbon system built specifically to remove PFAS from its raw water source, the Cape Fear River, smaller compounds, including perfluoro-2-methoxyacetic acid, or PFMOAA, have broken through the water treatment plant’s filtration, Waldroup said.

“We elected in an abundance of caution to increase our filter exchange,” he said.

Replacing filters more frequently ups the plant’s operating costs to an estimated $1 million annually.

The cost to replace one filter ranges between $600,000 to $700,000, Waldroup said.

CFPUA set a goal to prevent no more than 10 parts-per-trillion of PFMOAA from getting into treated drinking water going to 200,000 customers.

There are no federal or state limits on ultra-short-chain PFAS, so the utility chose the target of no more than 10 PPT to comply with proposed federal limits on six PFAS.

PFMOAA is not one of the compounds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposes to regulate.

The agency is expected to finalize limits on a combination of four chemical compounds: GenX, perfluoronanoic acid, or PFNA, perfluorohexane sulfonic acid, or PFHxS, and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid, or PFBS; and set maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs, of 4 PPT each on perfluooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and perflurooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, two of the most widely studied PFAS.

PFMOAA is, however, on the state’s priority study list of PFAS.

During an online meeting Wednesday, Waldroup told members of the advisory board that PFPrA is breaking through the filtration system at “similar and even higher levels” than PFMOAA. The utility has set the same treatment target of no more than 10 PPT for PFPrA.

PFMOAA and PFPrA are among a number of chemical compounds specific to Chemours Fayetteville Works facility, which is more than 70 miles upstream of Wilmington.

The DuPont spinoff for decades discharged PFAS, including GenX, into the Cape Fear River, the air, and the ground.

Under a 2019 Consent Order between Chemours, DEQ and Cape Fear River Watch, the company has had to install technology, including a thermal oxidizer and underground barrier wall, to drastically reduce the amount of PFAS it discharges into the air and river.

A little more than a year ago, DEQ issued Chemours a discharge permit that ultimately limits the amount of PFMOAA that may be released from the plant to less than 20 parts-per-trillion, or PPT.

Waldroup told the board the utility is seeking state guidance in determining maximum limits for ultra-short-chain PFAS.

Utility officials are investigating the potential of new treatments that, when paired with the CAG, may help bolster PFAS removal.

Human health effects of PFMOAA and PFPrA are unknown.

A pilot study of the National Resource Defense Council across 16 states found PFPrA in 24 out of 30 samples. Half of the samples contained higher concentrations of PFPrA than any other PFAS detected those samples.

Amy Delinsky, an environmental chemist with DEQ, explained that PFPrA is used to replace now-banned chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which were primarily used as refrigerants.

“The amount of PFPrA is actually expected to increase with time as a result of the use of these replacement refrigerants,” Delinsky said. “PFPrA also can be found in the environment as the result of the breakdown of longer-chain PFAS. Certain manufacturing facilities can produce PFPrA associated with some of the process that’s happening at the facility, whether it’s direct manufacturing or as a byproduct.”

PFPrA is found throughout the world.

Chemours “does appear to be the main source of PFPrA in the southeast part of the state,” Delinksy said.

The state Division of Water Resources has multiple testing stations through the state, including one at Lock and Dam Three in the Cape Fear River near Chemours.

PFPrA was detected between 1,000 and 1,500 PPT from water samples taken at that site in May and June of 2022, Delinksy said.

Seven out of 286 public water supply wells DWR sampled this year contained PFPrA above 20 PPT.

Those systems are in five counties in the Cape Fear, White Oak, and Tar-Pamlico river basins. Those counties include: Carteret, Cumberland, Franklin, New Hanover, and Pender.

Delinksy said the state will continue to gather additional data and work with the advisory board to develop specific questions related to CFPUA’s request to discuss at the board’s Dec. 6 meeting.

Update Oct. 3: North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality officials announced Tuesday that the listening location for the Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board meeting scheduled for Wednesday has changed from the Archdale Building in Raleigh to the DEQ Green Square building, Morrow Mountain Conference Room 5301, 512 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh.

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When the Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board meets in October, they are expected to hear updates on PFAS toxicity and presence from state and federal agencies, as well as how a public utility that serves the Wilmington region is treating its water for the group of chemicals.

The meeting begins at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 4. The public can join online through WebEx No. 2437 650 9536 and use password NCDEQ, or go to the in-person listening location in the Archdale Building in Raleigh.

The draft agenda is available online for the 13-member board of experts that experts advise the state departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, is a group of manufactured chemicals used to make coatings and products that resist heat, oil, stains, grease, and water. The chemicals persist in the environment and exposure in people can occur by consuming PFAS-contaminated water or food, or by using products that contain PFAS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2017, it was learned that the Cape Fear River was contaminated by PFAS.

During the meeting, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Executive Director Ken Waldroup, or a designee, is scheduled to present an overview of the utility’s PFAS water treatment operation and request for assistance. PFAS has been detected in one of the utility’s water sources, the Cape Fear River.

Board members are expected to hear a presentation on perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFPrA, human health toxicity value. PFPrA is in the group of PFAS. The assessment by the Environmental Protection Agency is a written summary of the potential health effects associated with exposure to PFPrA and identifies exposure levels where those health effects may happen.

NCDEQ staff are also expected to give a presentation on the prevalence of PFPrA in the state, current analytical capabilities, and possible sources.

Last on the agenda is the update from Division of Water Resources staff on NCDEQ’s public water system sampling effort, and EPA’s UCMR5 initiative related to North Carolina. The UCMR5, or the fifth unregulated contaminant monitoring rule published Dec. 27, 2021, requires sample collection for 30 chemical contaminants between 2023 and 2025 using analytical methods developed by EPA and consensus organizations, according to the EPA.

The 2023 Environmental Stewardship Initiative Conference set for Sept. 26-27 in Raleigh will offer educational sessions on timely environmental topics, a chance to share best practices, and networking events.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Environmental Stewardship Initiative is hosting the two-day event at the North Carolina Rural Economic Center in Raleigh. The tentative agenda is on the NCDEQ website.

The Environmental Stewardship Initiative is a member-based program for businesses that want to improve sustainability and put in place pollution prevention practices that protect the environment.

Educational sessions during the conference later this month will cover LED recycling, legislative updates, DEQ PFAS strategy, goal setting, program and recycling updates, and more. The annual ESI awards are to be presented just after lunch on the final day of the conference.  

Environmental Stewardship Initiative members, business and community leaders and the public are encouraged to attend. Tickets range from $75 to $200. Register to attend online.

The initiative is a voluntary program that provides its members with networking and outreach opportunities to learn about innovative solutions and share successes as they achieve their goals. DEQ provides no-cost technical assistance to members, including strategies to reduce water and energy usage. 

Environmental groups this week have filed a petition asking that the state be required to make industries with discharge permits install equipment that will keep pollution out of rivers and streams.

The Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf Cape Fear River Watch, MountainTrue, and Yadkin Riverkeeper has petitioned the N.C. Environmental Management Commission to rule that the state Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, to mandate industrial permittees install available technologies in order to stop pollution at the source.

“DEQ’s inconsistent application of the law leaves communities in North Carolina vulnerable to harmful industrial water pollution,” SELC Senior Attorney Patrick Hunter said in a release. “The Environmental Management Commission has an important opportunity to confirm DEQ’s longstanding legal obligation to consistently apply the protections of the Clean Water Act to communities across the state. Consistent application of the law will better protect North Carolinians from harmful pollutants like toxic PFAS, or forever chemicals, and 1,4-dioxane.”

Industries that discharge pollutants are required under the Clean Water Act to obtain a permit. Permits have to include existing technologies that can reduce and omit pollutants from entering the environment.

The groups filing the petition argue that DEQ “bypasses” that technology-based requirement “in the majority of permits it issues for industries that discharge pollution directly into local waterways.”

“Our rivers and streams are not dumping grounds and we expect industrial dischargers to minimize the amount of pollution they put into streams that are used for swimming, fishing, and drinking water across the state,” Gray Jernigan, general counsel for MountainTrue, said in the release. “Today, we’re asking DEQ to consistently apply technology-based requirements under the Clean Water Act to protect downstream communities and fish that people rely on for sustenance.”

DEQ has applied technology-based controls in permits for Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant in Bladen County and Colonial Pipeline, the latter of which led to an 86% reduction in the amount of benzene Colonial may discharge into waterways, according to the release.

Chemours, under a Consent Order with DEQ and Cape Fear River Watch, has installed an underground barrier wall to keep per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, from seeping from the plant through groundwater and into the Cape Fear River.

Emerging compounds including PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has identified as a probable carcinogen, have been found at various levels throughout the Cape Fear River. The river is a drinking water source for tens of thousands of North Carolinians.

“Proper application of technology-based controls has led to significant water quality protections in our community,” Yadkin Riverkeeper Edgard Miller said. “We commend DEQ for applying technology-based controls in the Colonial Pipeline permit and we hope that a ruling by the Environmental Management Commission will ensure those protections are extended across North Carolina for all its residents.”

The commission has been asked to require DEQ to evaluate current pollution control technologies for all industrial facilities in the state and set limits based on technologies that are available at the time permits are issued.

“Our petition asks DEQ to apply the same laws it applied at Chemours to other industrial dischargers within the Cape Fear watershed and across the state,” Cape Fear Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette said. “Technologies are available that can dramatically reduce industrial water pollution. Communities in North Carolina are depending on DEQ to issue permits that require industries to use those technologies to better protect water quality and communities.”

More fish advisories, this time for saltwater species, could be announced for the Cape Fear River pending the results of fish tissue samples being analyzed for dozens of human-made chemicals polluting the river.

Frannie Nilsen, a toxicologist with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, said during a presentation Tuesday to the Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board that she’s hopeful the state will not need to add more fish from the river to the list of species found to have high concentrations of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS.

“We don’t know what this data will say so hopefully you don’t need to create an advisory,” Nilsen said during the presentation. “One thing I will say is that many saltwater species do have lower PFAS and PFOS concentrations because they have a wider home range and a more diverse diet so they’re not as concentrated for some of these compounds, at least based on the studies that exist in the literature.”

Results of the saltwater fish tissue currently being studied will be presented to the advisory board in the late fall or early winter, she said.

Those results will wrap up a study of multiple species of fish collected from the Cape Fear River, just south of Fayetteville to the Atlantic Ocean.

It’s been less than one month since the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released an advisory recommending people limit the amount of freshwater fish they consume from the middle and lower Cape Fear River after several species were found to contain PFOS.

PFOS is a group of related chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which are synthetic chemical compounds used in a host of consumer goods, including state and water-resistant products.

Nearly 280 fish from across 14 different species were collected and tested for 56 different PFAS, including GenX, a human-made chemical specific to Chemours Fayetteville Works Facility more than 70 miles upriver of Wilmington.

Under court order, Chemours has been chipping away at reducing the amount of PFAS the plant had been releasing into the river, air and groundwater.

Communities along the river had been pushing the state for fish studies since the public was made aware in 2017 that the plant had been discharging PFAS into the river for decades.

The species that were tested were specifically targeted because they are the most frequently fished and eaten from the river.

Fish were collected from one of 11 different sites along the river. Each site spanned just under 12.5 miles in length.

While PFAS were found in all of the freshwater fish tissue samples collected, PFOS concentrations were highest in bluegill, flathead catfish, largemouth bass, striped bass and redear sunfish.

PFOS was also found in American shad, blue catfish and channel catfish, but at lower concentrations.

“This is not entirely what was expected, but this is not uncommon or irregular in terms of freshwater fish samples,” Nilsen said. “If you look at just the PFOS concentrations at each site for each species, they are variable, but they’re not significantly different. They’re variable between species, but within the species they’re not so different. So, while the PFOS concentrations did look much higher than all the others, they don’t vary so much between the sites in the river. This is really providing a very comprehensive data set to inform additional fish studies in the future and looking retrospectively at ones that exist in literature.”

Analysis of 67 saltwater fish across nine species taken from three sites between Wilmington and the mouth of the river at Southport are starting to come in to the state, she said.

Those fish include black and red drum, Atlantic croaker, sheepshead and southern flounder. Tissue samples from speckled trout, flathead catfish and striped bass were also taken from those sites.

Virginia Guidry, DHHS Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology branch head, explained that the fish advisories do not create legal or regulatory restrictions on fish consumption, but rather health recommendations.

And while other states have PFAS-related fish advisories, she said it is difficult to make direct comparisons with those issued for the Cape Fear River.

Guidry said that, to her knowledge, North Carolina is the first state to issue advisories based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest reference doses on PFOS, which were released in March.

“We did this so that we could base our advisories on the most current scientific data and be as health protective as we can,” she said. “This uses the same science as the proposed maximum contaminant levels for drinking water supplies. The concentrations of PFOS that we found in North Carolina are similar to levels that are found nationally, but our advisory is more restrictive because we are using that new EPA reference. These advisories are important information that we want to share with the public so they can reduce their exposure to PFAS.”

She emphasized the delicate balance of warning people against eating too much of the fish listed under the advisory while acknowledging that fish are an important source of nutrition and that fish are culturally significant to Native American tribes and other communities.

Guidry noted that neighboring states, including South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia, do not have PFAS-related fish advisories.

The state is hosting community meetings later this month about the advisories. The schedule is as follows:

• Aug. 17 at Bladen Community College from 6-8 p.m.
• Aug. 22 at Navassa Community Center from 6-8 p.m.
• Aug. 24 virtual meeting from 6-8 p.m.

Additional information will be provided on the DHHS website.

A recent advisory by the state to avoid fish contaminated with forever chemicals from the Cape Fear River is on the agenda for the Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board’s meeting next month.

The board is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 2, at Green Square Training Room, 217 West Jones St., Raleigh.

North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services staff will present the details of a July 13 advisory recommending limiting fish consumption from the middle and lower Cape Fear River because of concerns about exposure to perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, found in fish sampled from that area. PFOS are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, often called “forever chemicals” because they do not break down in the environment.

Also on the draft agenda, the Department of Environmental Quality staff will give an update on Cape Fear River fish data using samples collected in 2022, Division of Air Quality staff are to explain the current top priority pollutants and scope of their future work, and a presentation is scheduled on the data behind the Environmental Protection Agency’s new approach toxicology models.

The public is invited to attend the meeting in person or online. 

Join Webinar #2428 829 9683 Via WebEx. The password is ncdeq.

Listen by phone by calling 1-415-655-0003. The access code is 2428 829 9683.

There will be an in-person public comment period with opportunity to sign up upon arrival at the meeting.

The Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board is made up of 13 experts in toxicology, public health, ecology, engineering, and other related fields and assists the departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services. To learn more about the board and hear recordings of past meetings, visit the board’s website.

Communities statewide, including several on the coast, will receive a total of $223 million in water and wastewater infrastructure funding.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Infrastructure reviewed 338 eligible applications from 83 of North Carolina’s 100 counties, requesting $2.68 billion. Of those, 60 projects in 40 counties were chosen, including 41 construction projects, Gov. Roy Cooper’s office announced Thursday.

A full list of awards is on the NCDEQ website.

“This funding will help us achieve our goal of safer, cleaner drinking water for all North Carolinians,” Cooper said. “We have already seen the positive impacts funding like this can have for drinking and wastewater projects across our state and are ready to get to work to help more communities.”

Plymouth, a local government unit on the coast designated by the State Water Infrastructure Authority and the Local Government Commission as Distressed, will receive up to $7.3 million in low-interest loans for their water system improvement project to replace all of the town’s old water metering systems and old galvanized water lines, as well as up to $9 million in low-interest loans to replace old sewer lines and reduce inflow and infiltration.  

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority will receive up to $35 million in loans for a project to replace and expand its Southside Wastewater Treatment Plant, including the addition of a new activated sludge treatment process.

Hyde County will receive up to $400,000 in grants to develop a comprehensive stormwater master plan for Ocracoke Village and capital improvement plan that will include conceptual design plans for three stormwater projects.

Washington will receive $6.15 million for water treatment plant rehabilitation and $390,000 for either Simmons Street drainage improvements or Jacks Creek Pump Station automated screens.

Beaufort will receive $6.2 million for wastewater pump stations replacement.

Burgaw and Nags Head will receive $400,000 each to update their stormwater master plans.

Rocky Point Topsail Water and Sewer District will receive $25 million for reverse osmosis water treatment plant and associated improvements.

Over the last two years, the authority has approved funding for 770 drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater construction and planning projects, for a total of $1.6 billion.

“With each funding round, we continue to see that the need for infrastructure funding is far greater than the funding available,” said Secretary Elizabeth S. Biser. “DEQ is focused on providing funding to the communities that need it most to address aging infrastructure, PFAS contamination and access to affordable clean water and sewer service.”

The awards are through State Revolving Funds, the Community Development Block Grant-Infrastructure program, $58.9 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law general supplemental funds, and Local Assistance for Stormwater Infrastructure Investments fund.

The application period for the fall funding round for water and wastewater infrastructure projects opens Aug. 2 and ends at 5 p.m. Oct. 2. 

Funding application training for this round will be provided through five in-person statewide sessions Aug. 2-10, with a virtual option available and a recorded training session to be available online. The training session time and location schedule is on the division website.

For many anglers along the Cape Fear, there’s relaxation — and dinner — to be had from casting a line in the water.

NC Health News recently reported on one such group, whose ancestors’ interaction with the river predates European colonization. For the Skarure Woccon tribe (Cape Fear Indians), eating catfish and shad caught from the Cape Fear is a tradition many still follow.

But an advisory issued by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services last week could upend that customary practice — not just for the tribe, but also for subsistence fishers who rely on the river to provide an inexpensive protein source to supplement their diets.

The advisory says that several species of fish in the Cape Fear have levels of so-called forever chemicals that are so high that people should only be eating one fish per year, at most. This is unwelcome news to tribe members. 

Jane Jacobs (EagleHeart), a tribal leader of the Tuscarora tribe, said that tribe members enjoy getting together to fish in Wilmington at Lock and Dam #1 several times per month. However, a recent outing was tainted with a discussion about the fish advisory.

“I actually ran into a man down there who’s been fishing in the river for 55 years and had to explain to him about the water yesterday,” she said.

EagleHeart said that getting the word out and getting people to stop eating fish from the Cape Fear River will be daunting.

“My group of people, we all hunt and fish together, and we share whatever we get and make sure everybody’s freezers are stocked up,” EagleHeart said. “So yeah, it’s part of subsistence living.”

Fellow tribal leader Lovell Pierce Moore (Chief EagleElk) agrees that getting members to stop participating in cultural traditions such as fishing in the Cape Fear will not be easy.  

“(The river) has served as a place where a lot of families get together annually to have a shad fest — which is one of the fish that’s on the advisory.”

He added, “(Our ancestors) taught us how to hunt, how to grow, how to fish. And basically those are your three pillars of survival.”

Not the first rodeo

In 2018, the Duke Superfund Community Engagement Center and Cape Fear River Watch as well as a host of community partners collaborated to raise awareness about mercury-contaminated fish in the Cape Fear River. 

The Stop, Check, and Enjoy campaign primarily targeted subsistence anglers, and, in addition to posting warning signs at select fishing areas, people learned how to cook what they caught to minimize contamination exposure by removing the heads and baking instead of frying fish, for instance.

Community partner Veronica Carter participated in a video PSA that explained the program.

“We spread the news throughout the African American and Hispanic communities in the Wilmington area,” Carter said in a text message earlier this year. “I would like to think folks are eating healthier, but that would be purely anecdotal.”

Now — five years after the Stop, Check, and Enjoy program began — there’s a new fish advisory for the middle and lower Cape Fear region. DHHS’ freshwater fish advisory says that several fish in the river are carriers of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, which is one substance in the class of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. 

“Most PFAS exposure is through drinking water or eating food that contains PFAS,” said environmentalist Beth Kline-Markesino, founder of North Carolina Stop GenX in our Water, a nonprofit advocacy group. “However it is also important to note that fish remain an important source of nutrients.”

Experts say there are between 12,000 to 14,000 unique PFAS substances in the environment. Referred to collectively as “forever chemicals” because they take years to break down, PFAS are present in multiple products on the market, including some cosmetics, clothing apparel, microwave popcorn wrappers, firefighting turnout gear and some firefighting foams, among other items.

Researchers have found evidence that suggests a link between PFAS exposure and weaker antibody responses against infections in adults and children, elevated cholesterol levels, decreased fetal and infant growth, and kidney cancer in adults, among other problems.

There’s also an increasing amount of data showing that people who drink water tainted with PFAS have higher levels of the chemicals in their blood. There’s so much data about how diet can increase blood levels of PFAS that the European Food Safety Authority has concluded that diet is the “primary source of PFAS exposure for most people, with fish, meat, fruit and eggs as significant contributors.”

Who’s affected?

The new advisory, like the previous one, targets subsistence fishers. But unlike before, there are no recipes or particular ways to avoid PFOS when preparing the contaminated fish for eating.

In 2020, there were more than 20,000 North Carolinians (including inland and coastal waivers) who received a subsistence fishing waiver, which allowed them to fish free of charge in North Carolina waterways, according to data supplied by the Department of Environmental Quality.

The NCDHHS fish advisory suggests that women of childbearing age, pregnant women, nursing mothers and children should limit consumption of the following freshwater fish to one meal per year: American shad, blue catfish and channel catfish. The advisory recommends that this group not eat bluegill, flathead catfish, largemouth bass, striped bass and redear at all.

Meanwhile, the advisory recommends that everyone else should limit consumption of American shad, blue catfish and channel catfish to seven times per year, and people should limit eating bluegill, flathead catfish, largemouth bass, striped bass and redear to one fish per year.

More restrictions, fewer options

Many environmental and community activists applaud NCDHHS for producing the advisory. It will help residents decide where they fish and what fish species they should avoid eating from the Cape Fear River. However, unlike the Stop, Check, and Enjoy initiative, the new advisory suggests that people should avoid eating fish from the river, which is problematic for people who are food insecure. 

“If I am a person of limited means, you can’t tell me not to eat (the fish); what are you offering me (in return)?” Carter said. “If I’m getting two to three meals a week out of the Cape Fear River, and you say ‘don’t eat these fish at all (or), once a year,’ what the heck? Are you giving me more money on my EBT card? No. Are you giving me a way to get to the food bank? No.”

Like others, Chief EagleElk acknowledges the importance of the advisory, but he also feels it leaves people with few options. He said that polluters and officials who are slow to act are hampering the tribe and subsistence anglers, in general, from providing for themselves.

“They’re taking our ability to survive on our own away from us and making us dependent on them for survival,” he said.” And then whatever they’re feeding us is still tainted if they’re repackaging and selling fish out of the same tainted waters. So I mean, it’s almost like you’re damned if you do or don’t.”

NCDHHS epidemiologist Zach Moore understands that current fish advisory is more restrictive than the Stop, Check and Enjoy campaign but argues that it’s necessary.

Exposure to chemicals such as mercury, for instance, can be minimized by removing the skin and heads and baking instead of frying fish, he said. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case with PFAS. So we don’t have the same type of options to offer people in terms of safe preparation.”

“What I would really like for the community to remember is that these advisories may feel like they’re limiting our freedoms, and they’re limiting our survival, because yes, they are,” said Emily Donovan of Clean Cape Fear, a Wilmington-based environmental advocacy group.

 “We need to remind ourselves why, and who’s ultimately responsible, and make sure that those responsible parties are held fully accountable.” 

All roads lead to Raleigh

As anecdotes from people living in the Cape Fear region regarding strange illnesses and deaths continue to pile up, environmentalists are calling on state officials — who some believe are more interested in corporate profits than the health of the state’s citizens — to stand up to Chemours, the chemical company found to be contaminating the Cape Fear with various PFAS. They say state and federal authorities should hold the corporation responsible for what has become an environmental and human health nightmare for many.

“Communities across the state will continue to be impacted by forever chemicals in new and dangerous ways until industry leaders and political leaders do the right thing and take steps to cut this pollution off at the source,” Stephanie Schweickert, senior campaign organizer, NC Conservation Network, said in part in a statement published by the organization.

Cape Fear River Watch, a Wilmington-based environmental advocacy organization, released a statement that reads in part, “The Department of Environmental Quality is derelict in its duty to protect North Carolina’s environment and public health — choosing instead to keep its head down and avoid conflict with powerful polluters.”

“If people in power don’t get a grip on this [environmental issue] and start listening to community folk — especially Indigenous people — then we’re pretty much putting the nail in the coffin,” Chief ElkHeart said. He later added: “We don’t see the government taking it seriously. They’re just continuing on with being money mongers; it’s all about the dollar.”

This article first appeared on North Carolina Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Two state Environmental Management Commission committees are set to hear this week overviews on PFAS rulemaking and monitoring.

Committee meetings are scheduled for Wednesday and the full commission meeting is scheduled for Thursday in the Ground Floor Hearing Room of the Archdale Building in Raleigh. The public can attend in person or by remote access.

During the air quality committee meeting set to start at 9 a.m. Wednesday, members are to hear an overview about the Division of Air Quality’s permitting and technical services programs.

At 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, the groundwater and waste management committee is to be presented an overview of groundwater quality standards, including how they are calculated and developed, and on upcoming perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, rulemaking.

The water quality committee is to meet at 1 p.m. Wednesday for an introduction to the 2023-2025 surface water quality standards triennial review, a brief overview of PFAS standards rulemaking, and an overview of statewide PFAS monitoring of ambient groundwater.

The full commission is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday. The commission is to hear a request for approval of the hearing officer’s report to reclassify surface waters in the Watauga River Basin, approve appointments of members to the Water Pollution Control System Operators Certification Commission, and continue with its project to clean up rules containing minor errors.

Agendas for all meetings are on the Environmental Management Commission webpage.

The Environmental Management Commission is responsible for adopting rules for the protection, preservation and enhancement of the state’s air, land and water resources.

The commission oversees and adopts rules for the divisions of Air Quality; Energy, Mineral and Land Resources; Waste Management and Water Resources, under the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

After missing two deadlines, Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility notified state officials earlier this month that construction was complete on an underground barrier wall to stop contaminated groundwater from seeping into the Cape Fear River.

Chemours was instructed under a court-enforceable order to build the roughly mile-long barrier after the public was made aware in 2017 that the company had been discharging a number of human-made chemical compounds known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, into the river for decades.

The Cape Fear River is the drinking water source for tens of thousands of people who live downstream of the plant nearly 80 miles from downtown Wilmington.

Under the terms of a 2019 consent order and subsequent 2020 addendum among Chemours, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, and Cape Fear River Watch, Chemours must reduce air emissions facility wide by 99.9%, cut PFAS emissions into the Cape Fear River by more than 90%, and sample private wells for PFAS and provide drinking water to residents whose wells are contaminated.

Chemours in early 2020 installed a thermal oxidizer to destroy PFAS from entering the air.

The company failed to meet a March 15 deadline to complete the barrier off the river bank at the plant site in Bladen County.

On March 1, Chemours alerted DEQ that the project would not be completed by that deadline due to mechanical and staffing issues. DEQ officials assigned a new deadline for May 31, but the company missed that deadline as well. The progress is noted in an email exchange later posted on NCDEQ’s website after the second deadline was set.

Dawn M. Hughes, plant manager for Fayetteville Works, notified DEQ in a June 11 email that construction of the barrier was completed.

“The team will continue additional project efforts including quality assurance checks over the next several weeks. This is a significant milestone as part of the overall project,” Hughes wrote.

A Chemours representative confirmed Friday in a follow-up request for comment that the company “has completed the construction of our barrier wall and groundwater capture and treatment project in Fayetteville, NC consistent with our Consent Order and Consent Order Addendum with NCDEQ and Cape Fear River Watch.”

The representative said the system is actively extracting and treating groundwater as well as capturing seep water and stormwater.

“Based on initial monitoring data, the treatment system is operating well and meeting current and future discharge limits,” the representative continued. “The underground barrier wall has been installed. Looking ahead, our team will focus on operation, maintenance, and monitoring of the system while we complete all ancillary work and reporting required by the project.”

Sharon Martin, DEQ deputy secretary for public affairs, confirmed in an email Friday afternoon that department officials were notified June 11 the barrier had been completed.

“The extraction wells and treatment system have been operational since February,” Martin said in the email. “The NPDES permit for the treatment system specifies the monitoring and reporting requirements. DEQ staff have and will continue to visit the site as necessary. DEQ is reviewing next steps.”

Martin did not specifically answer whether the company would be held accountable for missing the May 31 deadline.

The barrier extends some six stories deep to stop groundwater, which is being diverted to about 70 wells, conveyed to an onsite treatment facility and treated before it is discharged into the river.

The Navy and Marine Corps are looking to test drinking water wells for certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, within an area around Marine Corps Auxiliary Landing Field Bogue in Carteret County.

An open house is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 27, to present information about the drinking water sampling and address questions and concerns.

Taking place at Cape Carteret Aquatic and Wellness Center, 300 Taylor Notion Road, Cape Carteret, the open house is to feature displays with information relating to Marine Corps Auxiliary Landing Field, or MCALF, Bogue, and representatives to discuss the drinking water well sampling near the landing field.

The Navy and Marine Corps partnered with North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and Carteret County Health Department on the coming public meeting.

Property owners and tenants who drink water from a well on a property within the sampling area may call 877-622-6483 to schedule an appointment. Appointments are available between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. June 28 through July 2 and from July 6 to July 13.

Those with water provided through West Carteret Water Corp. — and not from a well — do not need to have their water sampled.

Email questions about the drinking water sampling to navy.bogue.water.omb@usmc.mil or call and leave a detailed message at 877-622-6483.

Reprinted from NC Health News

State lawmakers discussed on June 14 this year’s regulatory reform bill and, despite a bevy of amendments and question marks about its effects on the environment and potential conflicts with the Clean Water Act, the bill received a favorable report and is moving on in the state Senate.

At first glance, House Bill 600 appears poised to weaken some hard-won protections dealing with water runoff and quality issues. In the coming days, representatives from the state’s environmental community will attempt to weigh-in on the proposed legislation.

One lawmaker who raised concerns during the discussion in the Senate Judiciary Committee is Natasha Marcus, D-Mecklenburg. Initially, Marcus directed her attention to language that, in part, would limit the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s ability to regulate how much chemical discharge that industry can dump into state waterways.

Some of the chemicals that lawmakers were fretting about include per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, commonly called “forever chemicals” because of their persistence in the environment.

“Section seven, I think, relates to this committee’s work,” Marcus said. “It prohibits DEQ from limiting PFAS levels by law and other toxic chemicals, and I think that’s a big problem.”

Brooks Rainey Pearson, a lobbyist for the Southern Environmental Law Center, shares Marcus’ concern.

“(It) would disallow DEQ from writing permits for chemicals that don’t have numeric standards,” Rainey Pearson said. “This includes all of the PFAS chemicals (and) 1.4 dioxane … those would not be able to be limited in discharge permits.”

“And I don’t think anybody actually wants that,” Rainey Pearson said. “The legislative bodies should not want that. All of their constituents benefit from DEQ being able to limit harmful pollution in their drinking water.”

The not-too-distant past

Discussion of the Regulatory Reform Act of 2023 comes a week after NC Health News reported that Chemours, DuPont and Corteva announced a billion-dollar settlement fund to address pending lawsuits brought on behalf of several states, environmental advocacy groups and individuals.

The proposed bill’s discussion also follows a protest rally held in Fayetteville, near the Chemours Fayetteville Works Facility. The protest organized by North Carolina Stop GenX in Our Water took place June 10, the week of the six-year anniversary that Wilmington StarNews reported that GenX was detected in the Cape Fear River. 

The environmental advocacy group, along with other groups based in the Cape Fear River basin, has worked to spread awareness about PFAS and to hold Chemours accountable for polluting the Cape Fear River as well as fouling the air, soil and groundwater with particulate matter emitted from its Fayetteville Works facility.

Although all the health effects of PFAS are not yet known, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says they are believed to impact the immune system and may reduce antibody responses to vaccines.

Additionally, a 2021 study suggests a possible link between childhood exposure to PFAS and the development of hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular disease later in life.

Research on laboratory animals has found a link between PFAS and liver, kidney, testicular, pancreas and thyroid cancers. Studies also suggest that PFAS can cause high cholesterol, pregnancy problems and immune suppression.

A call to action

Given the state’s recent history with PFAS and other water quality issues, it’s understandable that some would have strong reactions to parts of House Bill 600.

“Forever chemicals like PFAS are a serious concern. I am disappointed but not necessarily surprised that the Republican supermajority would block NCDEQ’s ability to protect the public from these carcinogens and contaminants,” Marcus said in an email to NC Health News.

Cape Fear River Watch, a Wilmington-based environmental advocacy organization, issued a call to action hours after the Judiciary Committee meeting concluded.

A statement sent out to supporters reads: “Practically speaking, this amendment would mean that toxic chemicals without numeric standards (like PFAS, 1,4-dioxane, etc.) could not be limited in discharge permits — resulting in free-flowing toxic contamination.”

The organization said the provisions in the bill would be “in blatant violation of the Clean Water Act.”

“None of the permits that DEQ has issued on Chemours to this point would have been legal under this rule!!” the statement continued.

The group encourages supporters to add their names and comments to an electronic letter that Cape Fear River Watch is sending to lawmakers to express their opposition. 

A break for large hog farms?

Marcus and others also point to issues in another section of the bill that, they argue, would weaken DEQ’s ability to enforce federal and civil rights laws on the massive hog farms that dot the landscape throughout eastern North Carolina.

The proposed bill could have a chilling effect on efforts by environmental activists and rural communities of color. They have long fought for protection from uncovered hog lagoons and spray fields, which have contaminated the environment and affected the quality of life of those who live near the massive hog farming operations.

Critics argue section 12(b)(c) is at odds with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Specifically, an executive order signed by former president Bill Clinton, established in 1994, that directs “Federal agencies to incorporate achieving environmental justice into their mission.”

That order also requires that entities that receive federal funding “that affect human health or the environment do not directly, or through contractual or other arrangements, use criteria, methods, or practices that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin.”

Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Carteret, Craven and Pamlico, who presided over the proceedings, acknowledged that the bill has a way to go before it’s ready to be voted on. He said that he and other bill sponsors are working to make sure that environmental safeguards will not be lost.

“We are really tuned into PFAS (and) we’re still working with DEQ to make sure that they’re OK with (the bill). So we’re not through with it yet,” Sanderson said. He noted that the bill has to get through another committee before reaching the floor of the Senate for a vote. “Conference (committee) is probably where we’re going to make the final changes.”

Sanderson admitted that addressing stakeholders’ and lawmakers’ concerns when drafting or amending legislation is challenging.

“Sometimes we’re on the same page, sometimes we’re not,” he said. “We’re just trying to do what’s right for our own state. And I think with that intent, that purpose in mind, we’re not going to put something in before its time.”

This article first appeared on North Carolina Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. Coastal Review partners with NC Health News to provide our readers with more news relevant to the North Carolina coast.

WILMINGTON — North Carolina’s largest river basin faces more than its fair share of threats, advocates say.

The Cape Fear River watershed is the most industrialized in the state. Swine and poultry factory farms, paper and wood pellet mills, chemical plants, yet-to-be cleaned coal ash ponds, countless small dams and several large dams, feed and textile mills, explosive commercial and residential development, and climate change endanger this river basin of about 9,000 square miles and home to about 2 million people.

Environmentalists and river advocates are taking aim at what they consider to be the latest threat to the lower Cape Fear River — the proposed deepening and widening of the Wilmington Harbor.

Attendees at Cape Fear River Watch’s second annual State of the River forum Thursday were urged to consider the potential impacts to the river’s habitat, the species that rely on that habitat and the communities and cultural resources that line the river’s banks.

The N.C. State Ports Authority’s plan to make room for larger container ships to travel 26 miles from the river’s mouth at the Atlantic Ocean to the Wilmington port would likely change the water, sand and riverside communities, said Hannah Nelson, an associate attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Chapel Hill office.

“Now is really the perfect time to start thinking through the tough questions on this project,” Nelson said to an audience of dozens gathered at the forum held in Cape Fear Community College’s Union Station building in downtown Wilmington.

The ports authority announced four years ago a proposal to deepen the harbor from 42 feet to 47 feet, widen it in areas by 100 feet up to 300 feet, and extend the ocean entrance to the river from 44 feet to 77 feet.

Those new depths and widths would allow the Wilmington port to remain competitive with other East Coast ports by making room for larger container ships coming from Asia, according to the state ports authority.

The changes would accommodate large vessels that can carry 14,000, 20-by-8-foot shipping containers that have been traveling through the Panama Canal since its expansion in 2016.

Related: Open house on Wilmington Harbor project set for June 13

But making room for larger ships could exacerbate saltwater intrusion, a phenomenon already occurring with sea level rise, through to the Northeast Cape Fear River, Sturgeon Creek and Town Creek, Nelson said.

“We expect to see this increased salinity throughout the river system,” she said.

Increased salinity is worrisome, Nelson said, because saltwater encroachment will force species to either migrate or altogether cease to exist in the river, kill off freshwater plants and habitat and destroy wetlands, which are nature’s storm buffers.

The proposed project is also expected to change the river’s tidal range and increase the mean high water level throughout the channel because the project would reduce the speed at which the water flows, she said.

Millions of cubic yards of sand will have to be removed, destroying nearly 1,000 acres of soft-bottom habitat and converting that habitat into deepwater habitat. Many of those acres make up primary nursing area for juvenile fish, Nelson said.

“If we dig all of that up, it can no longer be suitable for those young fish,” she said.

Sea turtles, including endangered loggerheads, rest and forage on the floor of the harbor. Bigger ships could increase erosion rates on the river banks, threatening recreational use of the river, shorebird habitat, communities, including environmental justice communities, and cultural resources.

There’s also concern that the sand that would be moved during construction of the proposed project could be laden with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which are human-made chemicals that have contaminated the river, the raw drinking water source for tens of thousands of people in the region, for decades.

Other possible impacts to communities on both sides of the harbor are increased vehicle traffic transporting containers, noise and land development.

“We’ve seen this play out in our neighboring states,” Nelson said.

Land in both Georgia and South Carolina on either side of the Savannah Harbor has experience a building boom of industrial warehouses since that harbor’s expansion project wrapped last year.

Nelson said that between 2019 and 2022, 77 warehouses of various sizes were built in the area around the expansion.

“These are just a couple of the environmental impacts that could happen with this project,” she said. “We don’t have to continue down the path of deepening and deepening and deepening because that’s what we’ve already done.”

The project received authorization under the Water Resources Development Act in late 2020.

Nonfederal-sponsored projects, such as those led by states or state agencies like the ports authority, have to get federal authorization before moving forward. In order to receive federal funds, projects must undergo an environmental assessment known as the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA process, which is headed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps is partnering with the ports authority to develop the Wilmington Harbor Clean Water Action Section 403 letter report and environmental impact statement, or EIS, which are estimated to cost $8.5 million and be completed in four years.

The public will have an opportunity to speak with Corps representatives submit comments at an open house next week hosted by the Corps’ Wilmington District. Public comments will be accepted through June 30.

The open house is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. June 13 in the Union Station building, 502 N. Front St.

For more information about the project and to submit comments visit https://wilmington-harbor-usace-saw.hub.arcgis.com/

When the Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board meets virtually at 10 a.m. Wednesday, its members are expected to consider rulemaking recommendations for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

Board members are expected to summarize and discuss the use of bioaccumulation factors for North Carolina rulemaking regarding perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, and Perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, which are part of the large group of lab-made chemicals known as PFAS.

The board also will hear from Department of Environmental Quality staff about a proposal to use the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory PFAS values for rulemaking in North Carolina.

The public can listen to the meeting by joining webinar No. 2436 625 4864 via WebEx. Use the password ssab06072023 if joining by computer or 77220607 from phones. There will be an the in-person listening station as well in the Archdale Building’s Ground Floor Hearing Room at 512 N Salisbury St. in Raleigh.

Made up of 13 members from the fields of toxicology, public health, ecology, engineering, and other related fields, board members help the state’s departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services by acting as consultants on DEQ’s determinations to regulate contaminants, identify contaminants of concern and determine which contaminants should be studied further.

The draft agenda and additional information about the board is available on the board’s webpage.

For a second time, the Fayetteville-based company found six years ago to be releasing toxins into the Cape Fear River has missed a state-imposed deadline to complete construction of a groundwater barrier.

Chemours Co. was given an extension until May 31 to complete a mile-long underground barrier wall project after it failed to finish the work by March 15 as initially required, but the DuPont spinoff company has again failed to meet the deadline.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is requiring the barrier wall remediation project to reduce per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in groundwater at the Chemours Fayetteville Works site.

A Chemours spokesperson told Coastal Review Thursday that the company expects the barrier wall to be complete this month.

The terms for the project to reduce PFAS loading from groundwater flow from under the site to the Cape Fear River and Willis Creek were set in the 2020 addendum to the February 2019 consent order among the company, NCDEQ and Cape Fear River Watch, which was represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center in the legal challenge that prompted state action.

The order and the addendum require Chemours to address PFAS sources and contamination at the facility to prevent further impacts to air, soil, groundwater and surface waters.

Among the many remediation steps, the addendum charges Chemours with the “complete installation of, and commence operation of, the Barrier Wall and Groundwater Extraction System” by March 15, 2023. 

In addition to the barrier, a groundwater extraction system was required to prevent groundwater moving around, above or under the barrier wall and to remove PFAS from extracted groundwater. That system is already in operation.

Fayetteville Works Plant Manager Dawn Hughes in a March 1, 2023, letter to NCDEQ wrote that while the groundwater extraction and treatment system “has been designed, approved, permitted, and installed and is being commissioned” the need for a “revised schedule” for completing the barrier wall was due to permitting taking longer than expected and pandemic-related supply chain issues.

NCDEQ officials “determined that the revised schedule, which requires project completion no later than May 31, 2023, is consistent with the Consent Order and Consent Order Addendum,” according to a March 2 letter responding to Chemours.

NCDEQ officials did not respond to a request for comment by deadline Thursday.

Southern Environmental Law Center Program Director Geoff Gisler said in response to a request for comment that the barrier “is an essential part of protecting people downstream of the Chemours Fayetteville Works facility. Chemours’ repeated failure to meet the deadline for finishing this critical project means that people in North Carolina who depend on the Cape Fear River will continue to be unnecessarily exposed to the company’s dangerous pollution. DEQ must hold Chemours responsible for its continued delay.”

The Chemours representative said Thursday that the company “continues to progress on the construction and implementation of our barrier wall and groundwater extraction and treatment project in Fayetteville.

“At present, the groundwater extraction and treatment system has been installed and is actively extracting and treating groundwater at a rate of approximately 500 gal/min. Based on initial monitoring data, the treatment system is operating well and meeting current and future discharge limits. Additionally, we have made significant progress on the construction of the barrier wall, and we expect it to be complete in June.”

Cape Fear River Watch Dana Sargent told Coastal Review that the delay was unacceptable.

“When are you going to finish this?” she said.